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CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN
LONDON
?!.■
CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN
LONDON
WITH ANECDOTES OF ITS FAMOUS COFFEE
HOUSES, HOSTELRIES, AND TAVERNS
FROM THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
TO THE PRESENT TIME
BY
JOHN TIMES, F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH ECCENTRICS AND ECCENTRICITIES"
A NEW EDITION
WITH FORTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1899
,■ \ \ ?.; I r^ 'f VIA
J.
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PRELIMINARY.
O IX years ago the publisher of the present work
issued a " History of Signboards," which met
with so much approval from the critical press and
from general readers, that the authors might not
unreasonably have been accused of vanity — or some-
thing very like vanity — at their achievement. A
companion volume was then contemplated under the
title of " A History of the Clubs, Tavern Coteries,
and ' Parlour Companies ' of Old London." Material
was gathered, and the late William Pinkerton, Esq.,
F.S.A., of Hounslow, undertook the preparation of
the book. But in the meantime another active
antiquary had prepared a work of similar character
to the one we had proposed, and this interesting
book, with numerous illustrations, prepared expressly
for the present edition, is now issued as a sequel
to the " History of Signboards."
Piccadilly,
Novemier J, 1872.
CONTENTS.
Origin of Clubs
The Mermaid Club .
Tue Apollo Club
Early Political Clubs
The October Club .
The Saturday, and Brothers Clubs
The Scriblerus Club .
The Calved Head Club .
The King's Head Club
Street Clubs
The Mohocks .
Blasphemous Clubs
Mug-house Clubs
The Kit-Kat Club
The Tatter's Club in Shire-lane
The Royal Society Club
The Cocoa-Tree CM
AlmacKs Club ....
AlmacHs Assembly Rooms
Brookeis Club .
" Fighting Fitzgerald" at Brookes' s
Arthur's Club ....
Whitis Club ....
Boodles Club .
F.\GB
I
r
?
14
16
20
21
30
52
35
3&
3&
47
54
56'
691
7 1'
75
76
8r
91
92-
10$
CONTENTS.
The Beef-steak Society
I'AGE
Captain Morris, the Bard of the Beefsteak Society
127
Beef-steak Clubs
• • • •
135
Club at Tom's Coffee-house
136
The King of Clubs .
. 140
Watier's Club .
,
143
Mr. Canning at the Clifford-street Club
144
Eccentric Clubs
146
Jacobite Club .
.
' 152
The Wittinagemot of the Chapter
Coffee-hous
e
153
The Roxburghe Club Dinners
159
The Society of Bast Overseers, Westminster
16s
The Robin Hood .
168
The Blue-stocking Club
169
The Ivy Lane Club .
171
The Essex Head Club
173
The Literary Club .
174
Goldsmith's Clubs .
187
The Dilettanti Society
189
The Royal Naval Club
196
The Wyndham Club .
198
The Travellers' Club
198
The United Service Club
201
The Alfred Club .
202
The Oriental CM .
204
The Athenceum Club
205
The University Club
"11
Economy of Clubs
, .
211
The Union Club
216
The Garrick Club .
.
218
The Reform Club .
.
227
CONTENTS. XX
PAGH
The Carlton Club . . ... . . 233
The Cotiservative Club . ... . . . 234
The Oxford and Cambridge Club . , . . . 23$
The Guards Club , , , ^ 237
The Army and Navy Club . :, .. , . »37
Theyunior United Service Club . . . . 239
Crockfords Club . . . . . .240
" King Allen" " The Golden Ball" and Scrope Davies . 244
The Four-in-ITand Club . . . . . .246
Whist Clubs .251
Princes Club Racquet Courts 254
An Angling Club . : . ^ . . . .257
The Red Lions . . . '.■ . . . .258
The Coventry, Erectheum, and Partlimon Clubs . .260
Antiquarian Clubs, — The Noviomagians . . .261
The Eccentrics . . . . . . . ,262
Douglas Jerrold's Clubs 263
Cltess Clubs 267
COFFEE-HOUSES.
Early Coffee-houses ....
Gwrraway's Coffee-house . •; ■ . v
Jonathan's Coffee-house
Rainbow Coffee-house ...
Nandds Coffee-house . . .
DicKs Coffee-house ....
The ''Lloyd's " of the Time of Charles TL
Lloyd^s Coffee-house ....
The Jerusalem Coffee-house
Baker's Coffee-house ....
Coffee-houses in Ned Ward's Time
269
273
278
280
284
285
286
289
293
294
294
CONTENTS.
Coffee-houses of the Eighteenth Century
Coffee-house Sharpers in \ii(t .
Don Saltero's Coffee-house
Sahop-houses .
The Smyrna Coffee-house
St. James's Coffee-house
Tlu British Coffee-house
Will's Coffee-house .
Button's Coffee-house
Dean Swift at Button's
Tonis Coffee-house
2^e Bedford Coffee-house, in Covent Garden
Macklin's Coffee-house Oratory .
Tom Kin^s Coffee-house ,
Piazza Coffee-house ....
The Chapter Coffee-house .
Child's Coffee-house ....
London Coffee-house ....
Turk's Head Coffee-house in Change Alley
Squires Coffee-house
Slaughter's Coffee-house
Will's and Series Coffee-houses .
The Grecian Coffee-house .
Georgis Coffee-house
The Percy Coffee-house
Peel^s Coffee-house .
297
304
305
309
3°9
310
3f5
315
323
331
332
333
338
340
342
343
345
345
347
349
352
356
357
359
360
361
CONTENTS.
TAVERNS.
"Die Taverns of Old London
The Bear at the Bridge Foot
Mermaid Taverns ...
T%e Boar's Head Tavern .
Three Cranes in the Vintry
London Stone Tavern
The Robin Hood
PontacKs, Abckurch-lane .
Popis Head Tavern
The Old Swan, Thames-street .
Cock Tavern, Threadneedle-street
Crown Tavern, Threadneedle-street
The King's Head Tavern, in the Poultry
The Mitre, in Wood-street . .
The Salutation and Cat Tavern
"Salutation" Taverns
Queen's Arms, St. PauPs Churchyard
Dollfs, Paternoster Row .
Aldersgate Taverns ....
" The Mourning Crown "
Jerusalem Taverns, Clerkenwell .
White Hart Tavern, Bishopsgate Without
The Mitre, in Fenchurch-street
The Kings Head, Fenchurch-street
The Elephant, Fenchurch-street
TTu African, St. MichaePs Alley
The Grave Maurice Tavern
Mathematical Society, Spitalfields
Globe Tavern, Fleet-street .
PAGE
362
373-
374
37+
377
378-
37&
379
380
381
381
382-
383
388
389
390
391
392
393
395
395
397
39»
400
400
401
402
4°3
404
xii CONTENTS.
FAGB
The Devil Tavern 40S
The Yeung Devil Tavern .
411
Cock Tavern, Fleet-street .
411
The Hercules' Pillars Taverns
. • • • .
413
Hole-in-the- Wall Taverns .
.
415
The Mitre, in Fleet-street .
. ,>
416
Ship Tavern, Temple Bar
. • .
417
The Palsgrave Head, Temple Bar
418
Heycock's, Temple Bar ....
419
The Crown and Anchor, Strand
419,
The Canary-House, in the Strand
420
The Fountain Tavern
421
Tavern Life of Sir Richard Steele
422
Clare Market Taverns ....
423
The Craven Head, Drtiry Lane
424
The Cock Tavern, in Bow-street
425
The Queen's Head, Bow-street .
427
The Shakspeare Tavern ....
427
Shuter, and his Tavern Places . . . .
429
The Pose Tavern, Covent Garden
429
Evan^s, Covent Garden . . . . '
431
The Fleece, Covent Garden
433
The Bedford Head, Covent Garden ,
434
The Salutation, Tavistock-street .
434
The Constitution Tavern, Covent Garden .
435
The Cider Cellar . . . ...
436
Offley's, Henrietta^street . . . .
• 437
The Rummer Tavern . .
438
Spring Garden Taverns ....
439
^' Heaven" and " Hell" Taverns, Westminster
441
"Bellamy's Kitchen"
•
. 443
CONTENTS. xiii
PAGE
A Coffee-house Canary-bird 444
Star and Garter, Pall Mall . . . o . 445
Thatched Howe Tavern, St. yarned s-street . 450
^^ The Running Footman" May Fair , . , 452
Piccadilly Inns and Tatems . . - « 453
Islin^on Taverns 456
Copenhagen House 460
Topham, the Strong Man, and his Taverns . .463
The Castle Tavern, Holborn 464
Marylebone and Padditigton Taverns . . , 466
Kensington and Brompton Taverns : . . .472
Knightsbridge Taverns .477
Ranelagh Gardens .... • . 483-
Cremome Tavern and Gardens 484
The Mulberry Garden 485
Pimlico Taverns 485
Lambeth, — Vauxhall Taverns and Gardens, etc, . .487
Freemason^ Lodges 489
Whitebait Taverns 492
The London Tavern .... . 498
The Clarendon Hotel .... 502
Freemasons^ Tavern, Great Queen' s-streef . -504
The Albion, Aldersgate-slreet . , , , - S°^
St. Jame^s Hall 5°7
Theatrical Taverns ... . ^ . 508
APPENDIX.
AlmacKs .... . . • S^P
Clubs at the Thatched House . . . • S'^
The Kit-kat Club ... ... 511
CONTENTS.
Watier's Club ....
Clubs of 1814
Gaming-Houses kept by Ladies .
Beef-sieak Society ....
Whitis Club ...
The Royal Academy Club .
Destruction of Taverns by Ftre .
The Tzar of Muscovy's Head, Tower-street
Hose Tavern, Tower-street
The Nag's Head Tavern, Cheapside .
The Hummums, Covent Garden
Origin of Tavern Signs
Index . . ...
PAGE
5"
S13
S14
S16
517
518
5^9
519
520
522
523
524
533
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON
THE BELL A T EDMONTON.
Famous in connexion witli John Gilpin's Ride, and more recently as i
favourite resting-place of Charles Lamb when out walking.
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Origin of Clubs.
THE Club, in the general acceptation of the term, may-
be regarded as one of the earliest offshoots of Man's
habitually gregarious and social inclination ; and as an
instance of -that remarkable influence which, in an early
stage of society, .tiie powers of Nature exercise over the
fortunes of mankind. It may not be traceable to the time
Wlien Adam dolve, and Eve span ;
but, it is natural to^imagine that concurrent with the force
of nu^iibers must Tiavfe incre?ised the tepde;ncy of men to
associat,^ for, some common , object, T)iig ma,y have been
the enjoyment of the staple of life ; for, our elegant Essayist,
writing with , ages . of experience at his beck, has truly
said " all celebrated Clubs were founded upqn eating and
drinking, which are points where most men agrep, and in
which the learned and the illiterate, the dull and the
airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear
a part."
For special proof of the antiquity of the practice -it may
suffice to refer to the polished Athenians, who had, besides
their general symJ>osia, {nendly meetings, where every one
sent his own portion of the feast, bore a proportionate part of
the expense, or gave a pledge at a fixed price. A regard for
clubbism existed even in Lycurgan Sparta : the public tables
consisted generally of fifteen persons each, and all vacancies
2 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
were filled up by ballot, in which unanimous consent was
indispensable for election ; and the other laws, as described
by Plutarch, differ but slightly from those of modern Clubs.
Justus Lipsius mentions a bonS. fide Roman Club, the
members of which were bound by certain organised rules
and regulations. Cicero records {De Senedute) the pleasure
he took in frequentipg tlje meetings of "those social Jarties
of his time, termed confraternities, where, according to a
good old custom, a president was appointed j and he adds
that the principal satisfaction he received from such enter-
tainments, arose much lesfe "from the pleasures of the palate
than from the opportunity thereby afforded him of enjoying
excellent company and conversation.* .'
The cognomen Club claims descent from the Anglo-
Saxon ; for Skinner derives it from clifian, cleofiah (our
cleave), from the division of the reckoning amoiig the guests
around the table. The word signifies uniting to divide, like
clave, including the correlative meanings to adhere and to
separate. " In conclusion, Club is evidently^ as faras form
is concerned, derived from cleave " (to split), but in signifi-
cation it would seem to be more . closely alied to cleave (to
adhere). It is not surprising that two verbs, identical in
form (in Eng.) and connected in signification, should sorno-
ticnes coalesce.t
To the Friday-street or more properly Bread-street Club,
said to have been originated by Sir Walter. Raleigh, was
long assigned the priority of date in England ; but we have
an instance of two centuries earlier. In the reign of
Henry IV., there was a Club called " La Court de bone
* Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club. i860.
(Not published.)
t Notes and Queries, 3rd S. i. p. 295, in which is noted : — "A good
illustration of the coiinexion between the ideas of division and union
is afforded by the two equivalent words partner and associi, the former
pointing especially to thetfivision of profits, the latter to the community
of interests."
ORIGIN OF CLUBS. 3
Compagnie," of which the worthy old poet Occleve was a
member, and probably Chaucer. In the works of the
former are two ballads, written about 1413 ; one, a congratu-
lation from the brethren to Henry Somer, on his appoint-
ment of the Sub-Treasurer of the Exchequer, ajid who
received Chaucer's pension for him. In the other ballad,
Occleve, after dwelling on some of, their rules and obser-
vances, gives Somer notice that he is expected to be in the
chair at their next meeting, and that the " styward " has
warned him that he is
for the dyiier arraye
Ageyn Thirsday next, and nat is delaye.
That there were certain conditions to be observed- by
this Society, appears from the latter . epistle,, which com-
mences with an answer to a letter of remonstrance the
" Court " has received from Henry Somer, against some
undue extravagance, and a- breach of their rules:* This
Society of four centuries and a half since was evidently a
jovial company. ,;,.,,
Still, we do not yet find the term '.' Club J' Mr. Carlyle,
in his History of Frederick the Great, assumes that the vow
of the Chivalry Orders — Geliibde — in vogue about A.b. 1190,
" passed to us in a singularly dwindled condition : Club we
now call it." To this it is objected that^ the mere re-
semldance in sound of Geliibde scaAClubAs inconclusive, for
the Orders of Templars, HospitaUets, and Prussian Knights,
were never called clubs in England ; and the origin of the
noun need not be sought for beyond its verb to f/«^i when
persons joined in papng the cost of the mutual entertain-
ment. Moreover, .^/«^^ in German means the social (r/«^ ;
and that word is borrowed from the English, the native
word being Zeche, which, from its root and compound.
* Notes and Queries, No. 234, p. 383. Communicated by Mr
Edward Foss, F,S.A.
B 2
4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON
conveys the idea generally of joint expenditure, and sp^ecially
in drinking.* ' ' ■- . . i
Aljout the end of the Sixteenth or the beginning of the
seventeenth century, there was established the fanltfus Club
at the Mermaid Tkvem, in Br^id-street, of which Shak-
speare, Beaumont^ Fletcher, Raleigh, Selden, Donne, &c.,
were members. Ben Jonson had a Club, of which he
appears to have been the founder, that met at the Devil
Tavern, between Middle-Temple gate and Temple Bar.
Not until shortly after this date do we find the word Club.
Aubrey says : " We now use the word dvbbe for a sodality in
a taveme." In 1659, Aubrey became a member of the
Rota, a political Glut), which met at the Turk's Head, in
New Palace Yard : " here we had," says Aubrey, " (very
formally) a balloting box, and balloted how things should be
carried, by way of "Tentamens. The room was every even-
ing as full as it could be crammed. "f Of this Rota political
Club we shall presently say more. It is worthy of notice
that politics were thus early introduced in English Club-lifg.
Dryden, some twenty years after the above date, asks :
"What right has. any man to meet in factious Clubs to
vilify the Govemnient ?"
' Three years after the • Great Fire, in 1669, there was
established in: the City,- the Civil Club, whicli exists to this
day. All the members are citizens, and are proud of their
Society, oh account of its ! antiquity, and of its being the
only Club which attaches to its staff the reputed office of a
chaplain. The members appealr to have first clubbed
together foi the sake of mutual aid and support ; but the
name of the founder of the Club, and the circumstances of
its origin, have unfortunately been lost with its early
records. The time at which it was established was one
* Notes and Queries, 2nd S. vol. xii. p. 386. Communicated by
Mr. Buckton.
t Memoir of Aubrey, by John Britton, 410, p. 36.
ORIGIN OF CLUBS. S
of severe trials^i when the Great Plague and the, Great
Eire had broken up much society, and many old assbqiations ;
the object and recommendation 'being, as one of the rules
expresses it, "that members should. give preference. to each
other in their respective callings;" and,, that "but one
person of the same trade or profession should be a member
of the Club." This is the rule of ±e old middle>-class clubs
called "One of a Trade."
The Civil Club met for many years at the Old ^Ship
Tavern, in Water-lane, upon which being takeri.down, the
Club removed to the New Corn Exchange, .Tavern, in Mark-
lane. The records, which are extant, show among former
members Parliament men, baronets, and aldermen ; , the
chaplain is the incumbent of St. Olave-by-the-Tower, Hart-
street Two high ' carved chairs, be;aring date 1669, are
used by the stewards. . . : , , ;
- At the time of th§ Revolution, the fTre^pn : Club, as it
was commonly called, 'met at the Rosp Tavern, in Covent
GaFden; to consult with, Lord .Colchestej, Mr. Thpmas
Whaiton, Colonel Talmash, Colonel Godfrey, and, many
Oitherg cff their party ; and tit was .thfre resqlved that the
regiment. under Lieutetfant-.Colonel Lapgstone's con)n>and,
should desert, en tire,, as they did, on Sunday, Npv., i§§8.*
In Friday-street, Cheapside, was held .tji? 'Wednesday
Club, at which, in 1695, certain .conferences, tpok Tilace
under 4he, direction of Willijim ,Pa,ter?pjn,-whiplji;;iultima,tely
Ipd to the, establishment of the; Baaks.^pfr, England. Such, is
the general belief j.butlMn.'Saxe. Bannister, in .his ,Z«/^ of
Pater-^on, p. 93, obsicrves :,'," It >as,been 3,,niatter .of much
doubt whether the .'Bank of England was originally proposed
from a Club or Society ;in the City oil^ndon. .jTJie Dialogue
Conferences of the Wedmdaj! . GM, '\n Friday-street, have
been quoted as if first, published ipL,,,i$9S, No auch
publication has been met with of a date: before, J 7°^ '" ^Pd
• Macphersdn's History of tnglaml, Vol;, iiu— Original jpajjcrs.
6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Mr. Bannister states his reasons for supposing it was not
preceded by any other book. Still, Paterson wrote the
papers entitled the Wednesday Club Conferences.
Club is defined by Dr. Johnson to be " an assembly of
good fellows, meeting under certain conditions;" but by
Todd, "an association of persons subjected to particular
rules." It is plain that the latter definition is at least not
that of a Club, as distinguished from any other kind of
association; although it may be more comprehensive than
is necessary, to take in all the gatherings that in modern
times' have' assumed the name of Clubs. Johnson's, how-
ever, is the more exact account of the true old Enghsh
Club.
The golden period of the Clubs was, however, in the time
of the Spectator, in whose rich humour their memories are
embalmed. " Man," writes Addison, in No. 9, "is said to
be a sociable animal \ and as an instance of it we may ' ob-
serve, that we take all occasions and pretences of forming
ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies, which are
commonly known by the name of Clubs. When a set of
men find themselves agree in any particular, though never
so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity,
and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of such a
fantastic resemblance."
Pall Mall was noted for its tavern Clubs more than two
centuries since. " The first time that Pepys mentions Pell
Mell," writes Cunningham, "is under the 26th of July, 1660,
where he says 'We went to Wood's (our old house foi
clubbing), and there we spent till ten at night.' This is
not only one of the earhest references to Pall Mall as an in-
habited locality, but one of the earhest uses of the word
' clubbing,' in its modern signification of a Club, and ad-
ditionally interesting, seeing that the street still maintains
what Johnson would have called its ' clubbable ' character."'
Ixi Spends Anecdotes {Supplemental), we read: "There
was a Club held at the King's Head, in Pall Mall, that
THE MERMAID CLUB. 7
arrogantJy called itself ' The World.' Lord Stafihope, then
(now Lord Chesterfield), Lord Herbert, &c., were members.
Epigrams were proposed to be written on the glasses, by
each member after dinner; once, when Dr. Young was
invited thither, the Doctor would have declined writing,
because he had no diamond : Lord Stanhope lent him his,
and he wrote immediately —
Accept a miracle, instead of wit ;
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.
The first modem Club mansion in Pall Mall was No. 86,
opened as a subscription house, called the Albion Hotel.
It was originally built for Edward Duke of York, brother
of George IIL, and is now the office of Ordnance.
(Correspondence.)
The Mermaid Club.
This fainous Club was held at the Mermaid Tavern, which
was long said to have stood in Friday-street, Cheapside ;
but Ben Jonson has, in his own verse, settled it in Bread-
street :
At Bread-street's Mermaid having dined and merry,
Proposed to go to Holbom in a wherry.
Ben Jonson, ed. Gifford, viii. 342.
Mr. Hunter also, in his Notes on Shakspeare, tells us that
Mr. Johnson, at the Mermaid, in Bread-Street, vintner,
occurs as creditor for I'js. in a schedule annexed to the will
of Albain Butler, of CliflFord's Inn, gentleman, in 1603.
Mr. Bum, in the Beaufoy Catalogue, also explains : " the
Mermaid in Bread-street, the Mermaid in Friday-street, and
the Mermaid in Cheap, were all one and the same. The
tavern, situated behind, had a way to it from these thorough-
fares, but' was nearer to Bread-street than Friday-street" In
a note, Mr. Burn adds : " The site of the Mermaid is clearly
defined firom the circumstance of W. R., a haberdasher ol
small wares, ' twixt Wood-street and Milk-street,' adopting
8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
the same sign ' over against the, Mermaid Tavern in Cheap-
side.' " The Tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire.
Here Sir Walter Raleigh is traditionjilly, said to have in-
stituted " The Mermaid Club." Gifford has thus described
the Club, adopting the tradition and the Friday-street loca-
tion : " About this time [1603] Jonson probably began to
acquire that turn for conviviality for which he was afterwards
noted. Sir Walter Raleigh, previously to his unfortunate
engagement with the wretched Cobham and others, had
instituted a meeting of beaux esprits at the Mermaid, a
celebraVed' tavern in Friday-street. ' Of this Club, which
combined more talent aiid genius than ever met together
before or since^ our 'author was a member; and here
for many years he regularly repaired, ' 'with ' Shakspeare,
Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Cotton, Carew, Martin, Doririe,
and many others, whose names, even at this distant period,
call up a mingled feeling of reverence and respect." But
this is doubted. : A writer in the Athenceum, Sept. 16, 1.S65,
states; "The origin of the common tale of R.aleigli founding
the . Mermaid Club, of which Shakspeare is paid to have been
a member, has not been traced. Is it older than Gifford?"
Again : " Gifford's apparent- invention of the Mermaid Club.
Prove to us that Raleigh founded the Mermaid Club, that
the wits alteridfed it under his presidency, and you will have
made a real contribution to our knowledge of Shakspeaie's
time, even if you fail to shovy. that our Poet was a member-;
of that Club.!', The. tradition, it is thought, must be added
to the long list of Shakspearian dpnbts.
Nevertheless, Fuller has described the wit-comba,ts be-^'
tween Shakspeare and Ben Jon$pn, "which he beheld,"
meaning with his mind's eye, for he was only eight years of -
age when , Shakspearp :died; "a circumstancej" says Mr.^
Charles Knight, .'^whi^ appears to- have been forgotten by
some wh.o,have written, of ,thfse-; matters.",, But we have a
noble jrecjprd left of the wit-combats in the celebrated epistle
of Beaumont,^o Jonson -i^ , , -.- ,
THE APOLLO CLUB. 9
Methinks the litfle wit I had is lost
■ ^ Since I saw you.; for wit is like a rest
Held up at tennis, which men do the best
With the best gamesters : what things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid. ! heard, wor^s that have been
So nimble, a^d so full of subtile flame.
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.
And had fesolv'd to live a fool the rest ;
Of his dull life j then when there hath been thrown
Wit able enough to justify the town
For three days past, wit that might warrant be
For the whole city to talk foolishly
'Till that were cancell'd ; and when that was gone
We left an air behind us, which alone
Was able to make the two next companies
Right witty ; though but downright fools, -mere wise.
The Apollo Club.
The noted tavern, with the, sign of St. Dunstan pulling the
Devil by the nose, stood between Temple Bar and the
Middle Temple gate. It was a bouse of great resort in the
reign of James I., and then kept by Simon Wadloe.
In Ben Jonson's Stable of News, played in 1625, Penny-
boy Canter advises, to
Dine in Apollo, with Pecunia
At brave Duke Wadloe's.
Pennyboy junior replies —
Content, i'th' faith; ; . , • .
i ,Our meal shall be brought thither \ Simon the King
Will bid us welcome.
At whatr period Ben Jonson began to frequent ;this tavern
is not certain; but we have his record that he wrote The
DeviLis an Asse^ -p^ysA '^^ 1,616, when he and his .boys
(adopted sons) "drank bad wine at the Devil." The
principalroom was called ',' the Oracle of. Apollo," a large
room evidently built apart, from the tavern ; and from Prior's
10 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
and Charles Montagu's Hind and Panther Transversed it is
shown to have been an upper apartment, or on the first
story : —
Hence to the Devil —
Thus to the place where Jonson sat, we climb,
Leaning on the same rail that guided him.
Above the door was the bust of Apollo; and the following
verses, " the Welcome," were inscribed in gold letters upon
a black board, and "placed over the door at the entrance
into the Apollo
Welcome all, who lead or follow,
To the Oracle of Af olio —
Here he speaks out of his pottle,
Or the tripos, his Tower bottle ;
All his answers are divine.
Truth itself doth flow in wine.
Hang up all the poor hop-drinkers,
Cries old Sim the king of skinkers ;
He that half of life abuses,
That sits watering with the Muses.
Those dull girls no good can mean us ;
Wine it is the milk of Venus,
And the Poet's horse accounted :
Ply it, and you all are mounted.
'Tis the true Phoebeian liquor.
Cheers the brain, makes wit the quicker,
Pays all debts, cures all diseases.
And at once three senses pleases.
Welcome all, who lead or follow,
To the Oracle of A folio.
Beneath these verses was the name of the author, thus
inscribed — " O Rare Ben Jonson," a posthumous tribute
from his grave in Westminster Abbey. The bust appears
modelled from the Apollo Belvedere, by some skilful person
of the olden day, but has been several times painted. " The
Welcome," originally inscribed in gold letters, on a thick
black-painted board, has since been wholly repainted and
gilded ; but the old thickly-lettered inscription of Ben's day
may be seen as an embossment upon the modern painted
■ THE APOLLO CLUB. n
background. These poetic memorials are both preserved in
the banking-house of the Messrs. Child.
" The Welcome," says Mr. Burn, "it may be inferred,
\vas placed in the interior of the room j so also, above the
fireplace, were the Rules of the Club, said by early writers
to have been inscribed in marble, but were in truth gilded
letters upon a black-painted board, similar to the verses of
the Welcome. These Rules are justly admired for the con-
ciseness and elegance of the Latinity.'' They have been
felicitously translated by Alexander Broome, one of the wits
who frequented the Devil, and who was one of Ben Jonson's
twelve adopted poetical sons. Latin inscriptions were also
placed in other directions, to adorn the house. Over the
clock in the kitchen, in 1731, there remained " Si nocturna
tibi noceat potatio vini, hoc in mane hibes iterum, et fuerit
medicina.'' Aubrey reports his uncle Danvers to have said
that " Ben Jonson, to be near the Devil tavern, in King
James's time, lived without Temple-barre, at a combe-
maker's shop, about the Elephant and Castle /' and James
Lord Scudamore has, in his Homer d la Mode, a travesty,
said —
Apollo had a flamen,
Who in 's temple did say Amen.
This personage certainly Ben Jonson represented in the great
room of the Devil Tavern. Hither came all who desired to
be " sealed of the tribe of Ben." " The Leget Conviviales,''
says Leigh Hunt, "which Jonson wrote for his Club, and
which are to be found in his works, are composed in his
usual style of elaborate and compiled learning, not without
a taste of that dictatorial self-sufficiency, which, notwith-
standing all that has been said by his advocates, and the
good qualities he undoubtedly possessed, forms an indelible
part of his character. ' Insipida poemata,' says he, ' nulla
recitaniur' (Let nobody repeat to us insipid poetry) ; as if
all that he should read of his own must infallibly be other-
wise. The Club at the Devil does not appear to have
12 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
resembled the higher one at the Mermaid, where Shakspeaie
and Beaumont used to meet him. He most probably had
it aU to himself."
In the Rules of the Apollo Club, women of character
were not excluded from attending the meetings— /'/-(7iJ«
feminee non repudiantur. Marmion, one of Jonson's con-
temporary dramatists, describes him in his presidential chair,
as " the boon Delphic god :" —
Careless. I am full
Of Oracles. I am come from Apollo.
Emilia. From Apollo !
Careless. From the heaven
Of my delight, where the boon Delphic god
Drinks sack, and keeps his bacchanalia,
And has his incense and his altars smoaking,
And speaks in sparkling prophecies ; thence I come,
My brains' perfutiied with the rich Indian vapour,
And heightened with conceits. From tempting beauties,
From dainty music and poetic strains.
From bowls of nectar and ambrosial dishes.
From witty varlets, 'fine coinpanion's,
And froni a mighty continent of pleasilre.
Sails thy brave Careless.
Randolph was by Ben- Jonson- adopted for his son, and
that upon the following occasion. "Mr. Randolph having,
been at London so l6hg as that he might truly have had a
parley with his Empty Purse, was resolved to see Ben
Jonson, with his associates, which, as he heard, at a set time
kept a Club together at the Devil Tavern, neere Temple
Ban accordingly, at the time appointed, he went thither,
but beifig unknown to therh, and wanting money, which to
an ingenious spirit is the most daunting thing in the world,
he peeped in the room where they were, which being espied
by Ben Jonson, and seeing him in a scholar's, threadbare
habit, ' John Bo-peep,' says he, ' come in,' which accordingly
he did ; when immediately they began to rhyme upon the
meanness of liis clothes, asking him if he could not make a
EARLY POLITICAL CLUBS. 13
verse ?' and without to call for a quart of sack : there being
four of them, he immediately thus replied,
" I, John Bo-peep, to you four, sheep, —
With each one his go6d fleece ;
If that you are willing to give me five shilling,
"Ilis fifteen-pence aTpiece."
" By Jesus !" quoth Ben Jonson (his usual oath), " I
believe this is my son Randolph;" which being made known
to them, he was kindly entertained into their company, and
Ben Jonson ever after called him son. He wrote The Muses'
Looking-glass, Cambridge Duns, Parley with his. Empty
Purse, and other poems.
We shall have more to say of the Devil Tavern, which
has other celebrities besides Jonson.
Early Political Clubs.
Our Clubs, or social gatherings, which date from the
Restoration, were exclusively political. The first we hear of
was the noted Rota, or Coffee Club, as Pepys calls it, which
was founded in 1659, as a kind of debating society for the
dissemination of Repubhcan opinions, which Harrington
had painted in his fairest colours in his Oceana. It met in
New Palace Yard, " where they take water at one Miles's,
the next house to the stares, at one Miles's, where was made
purposely a large ovall table, with a passage in the middle
for Miles to deliver his coffee." Here Harrington gave
- nightly lectures on the advantage of a commonwealth and
of the ballot. The Club derived its name from a plan, which
it was its design to promote, for changing a certain number
of Members of Parliament annually by rotation. Sir William
Petty was one of its members. Round the table, "in a
room every evening as full as it could be crammed," says
Aubrey, sat Milton and Marvell, Cyriac Skinner, Harring-
ton, Nevill, and their friends, discussing abstract political
questions. Aubrey calls them " disciples and virtuosi."
14 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The place had its dissensions and brawls : ",one time Mr.
Stafford and his friends came in dnmk from the tavern, and
affronted the Junto ; the soldiers offered to kick them down
stayres, but Mr. Harrington's moderation and persuasion
hindered it."
To the Rota, in January, 1660, came Pepys, and "heard
very good discourse in answer to Mr. Harrington's answer,
who said that the state of the Roman government was not
a settled government ; and so it was no wonder the .balance
of prosperity was in one hand, and the command in another,
it being therefore always in a posture of war: but it was
carried by ballot that it was a steady government ; though,
it is true, by the voices it had been carried before that, that
it was an unsteady government. So to-morrow it is to be
proved by the opponents that the balance lay in one hand
and the government in another." The Club was broken up
after the Restoration ; but its members had become marked
men. Harrington's Oceana is an imaginary account of the
construction of a commonwealth in a country, of which
Oceana is the imaginary name. " Rota-men" occurs by way
of comparison in Hudibras, part ii. canto 3 :
But Sidrophel, as full of tricks
As Rota-men of politics.
Besides the Rota, there was the old Royalist Club, "The
Sealed Knot," which, the year before the Restoration, had
organized a general insurrection in favour of the King.
Unluckily, they had a spy amongst them — Sir Richard
Willis, — who had long fingered Cromwell's money, as one
of his private " intelligencers ;" the leaders, on his mforma-
tion, were arrested, and committed to prison.
The October Club.
The writer of an excellent paper in the National Review,
No. VIII., well observes that "Politics under Anne had
grown a smaller and less dangerous game than in the pre-
THE OCTOBER CLUB. 15
ceding century. The original political Clubs of the Common-
wealth, the Protectorate, and the Restoration, plotted revo-
lutions of government. The Parliamentary Clubs, after the
Revolution of 1688, manoeuvred for changes of administra-
tion. The high-flying Tory country gentleman and country
member drunk the health of the King — sometinies over the
water-decanter, and flustered himself with bumpers in honour
of Dr. Sacheverell and the Church of England, with true-
blue spirits of his own kidney, at the October Club, which,
like the Beef Steak Club, was named after the cheer for
which it was i^x&t^,-^October ale; or rather, on account of
the quantities of the ale which the members drank. The
hundred and fifty squires, Tories to tlie backbone, who,
under the above name, met at the Bell Tavern, in King
Street, Westminster, were of opinion that the party to which
they belonged were too backward in punishing and turning
out the Whigs ; and they gave uifinite trouble to the Tory
administration which came into office under the leadership
of Harley, St. John, and Harcourt, in 17 10. The Adminis-
tration were for proceeding moderately with their rivals, and
for generally replacing opponents with partisans. The
October Club were for immediately impeaching every
member of the Whig party, and for turning out, without a
day's grace, every placeman who did not wear their colours
and shout their cries."
Swift was great at the October Club, and he was employed
to talk over those who were amenable to reason, and to
appease a discontent which was hastily ripening into mutiny.
There are allusions to such negotiations in more than one
passage of ^t Journal to Stella, in 1711. In a letter,
February 10, 1710-11, he says : "We are plagued here with
an October Club ; that is, a set of above a hundred Parlia-
ment men of the country, who drink October beer at home,
and meet every evening at a tavern near the Parliament, to
consult affairs, and drive thmgs on to extremes against the
Wings, to call the old ministry to account, and get off five
. i6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
or six heads." Swift's Advice humbly offered, to the Members
of the' October: Club, had the desired effect of softening some,
and convincing others, until the whole body of malcontents
was first divided and finally dissdIVed. The treatise is a
masterpiece- of Silirift's political skill, judiciously palliating
those ministerial errors which could not be denied, and
artfully intimating those excuses, which, resting upon the
disposition of Queen Anne herself, could; not, in policy or
decency, be openly pleaded.
The red-hot " tantivies," for whose loyalty the October
Club was not thorough-going enough, seceded from the
original body, and formed " the March Club," more Jaco-
bite and rampant in its hatred of the Whigs, than the Society
from which it branched.
King Street would, at this time, be a strange location for
a Parliamentary Club, like the October j narrow and obscure
as is the street, we must remember that a century ago, it was
the only thoroughfare to the Palace at Westminster and the
Houses of Parliament. When the October was broken up,
the portrait of Queen Arine, by Dahl,^ which ornamented the
club-room, was bought of the .Club, after the Queen'Scdeath,
by the Corporation of Salisburj*, and may still bfe seen' in
their Council-chamber. (<Z\am\Xy'^^v!!^ Handboih, and edit.,
p.. 364.) ,!-.. ;-V - ,
The Saturday, and Brothers Glubs.
Few men appear to have so well, studied: the social. and
political objects of Club-life as Dean^ Swift. One: of his
resorts was the old Saturday Club. / JHe. tells Stella (to
whom he specially reported most df. his club arrangements),
in 1711, there were " Lord I^eeper, Lord Rivers,; Mr.
Secretary, Mr. Harley, and I." Ofjthesame Club he writes,
in 17 13 : "I dined with Lord. Treasurer,, arid -shaiLagain to-
morrow, which is his day, when all: the iminjstersi dine with
him. He calls it whipping-day*i; , Itl is .alyfrays on Saturday ;
Relics of the Sublime Society of. Beefsteaks.
The Old Gridiron, recently sold at Christie's.
The Rine.
Old Badge.
Modern Badge.
THE SATURDAY, AND BROTHERS CLUBS. 17
and we do, indeed, rally him about his faults on that day,
I was of the original Club, when Only poor Lord Rivers,
Lord Keeper, and Lord Boliilgbroke came; but now
Ormond, Anglesey, Lord Stewart, Dartrticfuth, and other
rabble intrude, and I scold at it ; but now they pretend as
good a title as I ; and, indeed, many Saturdays I am not
there. The company being too many, I don't love it."
Ir the same year Swift framed the rules of the Brothers
-^ Club, which met every Thursday. " The end of our Club,"
he says, " is to advance conversation and friendship, and to
reward learning without interest or recommendation. We
take in none but men of wit, or men of interest ; and if we
go on as we began, no other Club in this town will be worth
talking of."
The Journal about this time is very full of Brothers Arran
and Dupplin, Masham and Ormond, Bathurst and Harcourt,
Orrery and Jack Hill, and other Tory magnates of the Club,
or Society as Swift preferred to call it. We find him enter-
taining his "Brothers" at the Thatched House Tavein, in
St. James's Street, at the cost of Seven good guineas. He
must have been an influential member; he writes: "We
are now, in all, nine lords and ten commoners. The Duke
of Beaufort had the confidence to propose his brother-in-
law, the Earl of D'anby, to be a member, but I opposed it so
warmly, that it was waived. Danby is not above twenty,
and we will 'have' no more boys ; and we want -bftt two to
make tip our n'umb^r."' I staid till eight, and 'then we all
went away soberly. The Duke of Ormetfd's trekt last week
cost 20/., though 'it was only four dishes' and four Without
a dessert >■' arid I bespoke it in order to beeheap. Yet I
could not prevail to change ' the house.' L"Ord Treasurer is
in a rage with us for being so extragaivarit ; and the wine
was not reckoned neither, for that is always' brought in by-
him that is- president." '■' -
Nftt long after thisj Swift' writes : "'Our Society does not
meet' now as -aSUal';' for which I am blamed; but till
c
ig CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Treasurer will agree to give us money and employments to
bestow, I am averse to it, and he gives us nothing but
promises. We now resolve to meet but once a fortnight,
and have a committee every other week of six or seven, to
consult about doing some good. I proposed another message
to Lord Treasurer by three principal members, to give a
hundred guineas to a certain person, and they are to urge it
as well as they can."
One day. President Arbuthnot gives the Society a dinner,
dressed in the Queen's, kitchen : " we eat it in Ozinda's
Coifee-house just by St. James's. We were never merrier or
better company, and did not part till after eleven." In
May, we hear how " fifteen of our Society dined together
under a canopy in an arbour at Parson's Green last Thurs-
day. I never saw anything so fine and romantic."
Latterly, the Club removed to the Star and Garter, in
Pall Mall, owing to the dearness of the Thatched House ;
after this, the expense was wofuUy complained of At these .
meetings, we may suppose, the literature of politics fomied
the staple of the conversation. The last epigram, the last,
pamphlet, the last Examiner, would be discussed with keen;
relish; and Swift mentions one occasion on which an im-
promptu subscription was got up for a poet, who had
lampooned Marlborough : on which occasion all the com-
pany subscribed two guineas each, except Swift himself,'
Arbuthnot, and Friend, who only gave one. Bolingbroke,
who was an active member, and Swift were on a footing of
great familiarity. St. John used to give capital dinnel-s and
plenty of champagne and burgundy to his hterary coadjutor,
who never ceased to wonder at the ease with which our
Secretary, got through his labours, and who worked for him
in turn with the sincerest devotion, though always, asserting
his equality, in the sturdiest manner.
Many pleasant glimpses of convivial meetings are afforded
in the Journal to Stella, when there was " much drinking,
little thinking," and the business which they had met to
THE SATURDAY, AND BROTHERS CLUBS. 19
consider was deferred to a more convenient season.
Whether (observes a contemporary) the power of conversa-
tion has declined or not, we certainly fear that the power of
drinking has ; and the imagination dwells with melancholy
fondness on that state of society in which great men were
not forbidden to be good fellows, which we fancy, whether
rightly or wrongly, must have been so superior to ours, in
which wit and eloquence succumb to statistics, and claret
has given place to coffee.
The Journal to Stella reveals Swift's sympathy for poor
starving authors, and how he carried out the objects of the
Society, in this respect. Thus, he goes to see " a poor poet,
one Mr. Diaper, in a nasty garret, very sick," described in
the Journal as " the author of the Sea Eclogues, poems of
Mermen, resembling pastorals and shepherds ; and they are
very pretty and the thought is new." -Then Swift tells us he
thinks to recommend Diaper to the Society ; he adds, "I
must do something for him, and get him out of the way.
I hate to have any new wits rise; but when they do
rise, I would encourage them ; but they tread on our
heels and thrust us off the stage." Only a few days before.
Swift had given Diaper twenty guineas from Lord Bolihg-
broke.
Then we get at the business of " the Brothers," when we
learn that the printer attended the dinners ; and the Journal
tells us : "There was printed a Grub-street speech of Lord
Nottingham, and he was such an owl to complain of it
in the House of Lords, who have taken up the printer for it.
I heard at Court that Walpole, (a great Whig member,) said
that I. and my whimsical Club writ it at one of our meetings,
and that I should pay for it. He will find he lies ; and I
shall let him know by a third hand my thoughts of him."
. . . "To-day I published The Fable of Midas, a poem
printed on a loose half-sheet of paper. I know not how it
will take; but it passed wonderfully at our Society to-
night." At one dinner, the printer's news is that the
c 2
20 CLUB LIFE OF J.0NO0N.
Chancellor of the Exdiequerhad sent Mr* Adisworth,. the
author of the Examiner, .tvicenty guineas.
There were gay sparks among " the Brothers," as Colonel
or "Duke " Disney, "a fellow of abundance of humour, an
old battered rake, but very honest ; not an old man, -but an
old rake. It was he that said of Jenny Kingdown, the maid
of honour, who is a little old, ' that since she could not get
a husband, the Queen should give her a brevet to act as a
married woman.'" — Journal to Stella.
The Scriblefus Club.
" The Brothers,'' as we have already seen, was a political
Club, which, . having in great measure served its purpose,
was broken up. Next year,. I7i4', Swift ; was again in
London, and in place of "the Brothers,". formed the cele-
brated "Scriblenis Qub," an association lather of a liteiary
than a political character. Oxford and St. , John^ Swift,
Arbuthnot, Pope, . and Gay, were members. ^ Satire uponjthe
abuse of human learning was their leading object T9ie
name originated as follows. - Oxford used playfully to; call
Swift Martin, and from/this sprung ,Martimis Scriblerus..
Swift, as is well known, is the name of one species' of
swallow, (the largest and most, powerful flier of theTtribe,)
and .Martin is the name of another species, .the wall-swallow,
which constructs its Jiest in buildings.
Part of ;the labours of the Society has been preserved in
P. P., Clerk: of the, Parish, the most memorable satire upon
Burnet's History of his Omn.:>Time, and part has been
rendered immortal by the Travels of Lemuel Gulliver:, but,
says Sir Walter Scott, in his Life ofSmift, "the violenceiof
political faction, -like a storm that spares the laurel no more
than the cedar, dispersed this little band of literary brethren,
and prevented the accomplishment of a task for which
talents :so various, so extended, and so brilHant, can never
again be united."
THE CALVES HEAD CLUB. 21
Oxford and ' Bolingbfoke, themselves accomplished
scholars, patrions and friends both of the persons and to
genius' thus assbciated, led the wSy, by their mutual ani-
mosity, to the dissolution of the confraternity. Their
discord had now risen to the highest pitcK '^ Swift tried the
force of ^ humorous expostulation in his fable of the Fagot,
where the ministers are called upon to contribute their
▼arious badges of office, to make the bundle strong and
secure. But all was in vain ; and, at length, tired with this
scene of murmuring and discontent,- quarrel, ihisuriderstand-
ing, and halted, the 'Dean, who was almost the only common
friend who laboured to 'Compose these differences, made a
final effort' at reconciliation ; but his scheme came to nothing,
and Swift-' retreated from the ' scene ' of 'discord, ' without
taking part with either of his contending friends, and went to
the house of the Reverend Mr. Gery, at Upper Letcombe,
Berkshire, where he resided for some weeks in the strictest
seclusioUf; This secession of Swift from the " political w'orld
excited the ^greatest surprise : the public wondered, — the
party writers* exulted in a- thousand ineffectual libels agkinst
the retreating chanipion of the ■ 'high church, — and his
friends conjured him in numerous letters to return and
reassume the task 'of a peacernaker; this, he positively
declined.
The Calves' Head Club.
The Calves' Head Club, in '^ridiciile of the memory of
Charles I.,^' has a strange history. It is first noticed in a
tract reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany. It is entitled
" The Secret History of the Calves' Head Cliib; or the Re-
publican unmasked. Wherein is fully shown the Religion of
the Calved Head Heroes, in their Anniversary Thanksgiving
Songs on the 2,0th of J^anuary, by them called Anthems, for
the years i6^^,' i6<)/^, 1695, 1696^ 1697. Now published to
demonstrate the restless implacable Spirit of a certain party still
22 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
amongst us, who are never to be satisfied until the present
Establishment in Church and State is subverted. The Second
Edition. London, 1 703." The Author of this Secret History,
supposed to be Ned Ward, attributed the origin of the Club
to Milton, and some other friends of the Commonwealth, in
opposition to Bishop Nixon, Dr. Sanderson, and others, who
met privately every 30th of January, and compiled a private
form of service for the day, not very different from that long
used. "After the Restoration," says the writer, " the eyes
of the government being upon the whole party, they were
obliged to meet with a great deal of precaution ; but in the
reign of King William they met almost in a public manner,
apprehending no danger." The writer further tells us, he
was informed that it was kept in no fixed house, but that
they moved as they thought convenient. The place where
they met when his informant was with them was in a blind
alley near Moorfields, where an axe hung up in the club-
room, and was reverenced as a principal symbol in this
diabolical sacrament. Their bill of fare was a large dish of
calves' heads, dressed several ways, by which they repre-
sented the king and his friends who had suffered in his
cause; a large pike, with a small one in his mouth, as an
emblem of tyranny ; a large cod's head, by which they
intended to represent the person of the king singly; a boar's
head with an apple in its mouth, to represent the king by
this as bestial, as by their other hieroglyphics they had done
foolish and tyrannical. After the repast was over, one of
their elders presented an Icon Basilike, which was with great
solemnity burnt upon the table, whilst the other anthems
were singing. After this, another produced Milton's Defensio
Fopuli Anglicani, upon which all laid their hands, and made
a protestation in form of an oath for ever to stand by and
maintain the same. The company only consisted of Inde-
pendents and Anabaptists ; and the famous Jeremy White,
formerly chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, who no doubt came
to sanctify with his pious exhortations the ribaldry of the
THE CALVES' HEAD CLUB. 23
day, said grace. After the table-cloth was removed, the
anniversary anthem, as they impiously called it, was sung,
and a calf s skull filled with wine, or other liquor ; and then
a brimmer went about to the pious memory of those worthy
patriots who had killed the tyrant and relieved their country
from his arbitrary sway : and, lastly, a collection was made
for the mercenary scribbler, to which every man contributed
according to his zeal for the cause and ability of his purse.
The tract passed, with many- augmentations as valueless
as the original trash, through no less than nine editions, the
last dated 1716. Indeed, it would appear to be a literary
fraud, to keep alive the calumny. All the evidence produced
concerning the meetings is from hearsay : the writer of the
Secret History had never himself been present at the Club ;
and his friend from whom he profe'sses to have received his
information, though a Whig, had no personal knowledge of
the Club. The slanderous rumour about Milton having to
do with the institution of the Club may be passed over as
unworthy of notice, this untrustworthy tract being the only
authority for it. Lowndes says, " this miserable tract has
been attributed to the author oilludibrds;" but it is altogether
unworthy of him.
Observances, insulting to the memory of Charles I., were
not altogether unknown. Heame tells us that on the 30th
of January, 1706-7, some young men in All Souls College,
Oxford, dined together at twelve o'clock, and amused them-
selves with cutting off the heads of a number of woodcocks,
" in contempt of the memory of the blessed martyr." They
tried to get calves-heads, but the cook refused to dress
them.
Some thirty years after, there occurred a scene which
seemed to give colour to the truth of the Secret History.
On January 30, 1735, "Seme young noblemen and gentle-
men met at a tavern in SuffglkTStreet,, called themselves the
Calves' Head Club, dressed- ftR\ft.ealfs head in a napkin,
and after some hurras threw ;it, into a bonfire, and dipped
24 , CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
napkins, in .their red wine and waved them out of the
window. The mob had strong beer given them, and for a
time hallooed as well as the best, but .taking disgust at some
healths proposed^ grew so outrageous that they broke all the
windows, and forced themselves into the house; but the
guards being sent for, prevented further mischief. The
Weekly Chronicle oi'SehiMaxy i, 1735, states that the damage
was estimated at 'some hundred pounds,' and -that the
guards were posted all night in the street, for the security of
the neighbourhood."
In L'Abbd Le Blanc's Letters we find this account of the
affair,: — ;"Some young men of quality chose to abandon
themselves to the debauchery of drinking, healths on the
30th of January, a day appointed by the Church of England
for ageneral fast, to expiate the murder of Charles I., whom
they honour as a martyr. As soon as they were heated with
wine, they began to: sing. This gave great offence to the
people, who stopped - before the tavern, and gave them
abusive language. One of these rash young men put his
head out of the window and drank to the memory of the
army which dethroned this King, and to the rebels which
cut off his head upon a scaffold. The stones^ immediately
flew from all parts, thie furious populace broke the windows
'of the house,- arid would haVe^et fire to it; and these silly
young men had a great deal of difficulty to save themselves."
Miss Banks tells us that " Lord-Middlesex, Lord Boyne,
and Mr. SeawalHs Shirley, were certainly present ; probably.
Lord John Sackville, Mr. Ponsonby, afterwards Lord Bes-
borough, was not there. Lord Boyne's finger was broken
by a stone which came in at the window. Lord Harcourt
was supposed to be present.'' Horace Walpole adds : " The
mob destroyed part of the house ; Sir William (called- Hell-
fire) Stanhope was one of the members."
This riotous occurrence was the occasion of some verses
in The Gmb-sireef Journal, from which the following lines
may be quoted as throwing additional light on the scene:—
THB CALVES HEAD CLVB. 2%
Strange times. !^ when noble peers, secure from riot.
Can't keep NolJ's atmual festival in quiet,
Through sasheis, brojte,, dirt,, stones, and brands thrown at 'em,
Which, if not sc^d- wais brandralu^ magnatitm.
Forced to run dovifn .to vaults for s^er quarters.
And in coal-holj^s their, ribbons hide and garters.
They thought their feast in dismal fray, thus, ending.
Themselves to shades of death and hell descending ;
This might have been, had stout Clare Market mobsters.
With cleavers arm'd, outmarch'd St. James's lobsters ;
.Numskulls they'd split, to furnisl^ other revels,
And make a Calves' -head Feast ^r worms and devils.
The manner in which Noll!s. (Oliver Gromwell's) "annual
festival" is here alluded to, seems to show that the bonfire
with the calf s-head and other accompaniments, had been
exhibited .in previous years. In confirmation of this fact,
there exis^^ a priat; entitled. J%e True E-ffigies. of the Members
of the Calve£-Head Club, held on the ■^oth of January, 1734,
in Suffolk Street, in the County of Middlesex ; being the year
before the riotous ' occurrence above related. This print
show,s. a.ibOjnfire.in the, centre; of the foreground, with the
mobij iin the :background, a house with three windows, the
central, wJpdQw, exhibiting two men, one, of whom is about
to. throw the caiPs-head into- the bonfire below. The window
on 'the right shows three persons drinking healths ; that on
the left, two other persons, one of whom wears, a mask,
and, has an axe in his .hand.
There are two other prints^ one engraved by the father of
Vandergucht, from a drawing by Hogarth.
After the tablecloth was removed (says the author), an
anniversary anthem was sung, and a calf s skull filled with
wine or other liquor, and out of which the company drank
to the pious memory of those worthy patriots who had, killed
the tyrant; and; lastly, a collection was made for the. writer
pf the, anthem, to which, every man contributed according
to his zeal or his means. The concluding lines of the
.anthem for the year 1697 are a:s follow ;-—
26 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Advance the emblem of the action,
Fill the calPs skull full of wine ;
Drinking ne'er was counted faction,
Men and gods adore the vine.
To the heroes gone before us,
Let's renew the flowing bowl ;
While the lustre of their glories
Shines like stars from pole to pole.
The laureate of the Club and of this doggrel was Benjamin
Bridgwater, who, alluding to the observance of the 30th of
January by zealous Royalists, wrote : —
They and we, this day observing.
Differ only in one thing ;
They are canting, whining, starving ;
We, rejoicing, drink, and sing.
Among Swift's poems will be remembered " Roland's
Invitation to Dismal to dine with the Calf s-Head Club" : —
While an alluding hymn some artist sings.
We toast " Confusion to the race of kings."
Wilson, in his Life of De Foe, doubts the truthfulness of
Ward's narrative, but adds : " In the frighted mmd of a
high-flying churchman, which was continually haunted by
such scenes, the caricature would easily pass for a likeness."
" It is probable," adds the honest biographer of De Foe,
" that the persons thus collected together to commemorate
the triumph of their principles, although in a manner dictated
by bad taste, and outrageous to humanity, would have con-
fined themselves to the ordinary methods of eatilig and
drinking, if it had not been for the ridiculous farce so
generally acted by the Royalists upon the same day. The
trash that issued from the pulpit in this reign, upon the 30th
of January, was such as to excite the worst passions in the
hearers. Nothing can exceed the grossness of language
employed upon these occasions. Forgetful- even of common
decorum, the speakers ransacked the vocabulary of the
vulgar for terms of vituperation, and hurled their anathemas
THE CALVES HEAD CLUB. 37
with wrath and fury against the objects of their hatred. The
terms rebel and fanatic were so often upon their lips, that
they became the reproach of honest men, who preferred the
scandal to the slavery they attempted to estabUsh. Those
who could profane the pulpit with so much rancour in the
support of senseless theories, and deal it out to the people
for religion, had little reason to complain of a few absurd
men who mixed politics and calves' heads at a tavern ; and
still less, to brand a whole religious community with their
actions."
The strange story was believed till our own time, when it
was fully disproved by two letters written a few days after
the riotous occurrence, by Mr. A. Smyth, to Mr. Spence,
and printed in the Appendix to his Anecdotes, 2nd edit.
1858 : in one it is stated, " The affair has been grossly mis-
represented all over the town, and in most of the public
papers : there was no calf's-head exposed at the window,
and afterwards thrown into the fire, no napkins dipt in claret
to represent blood, nor nothing that could give any colour
to any such reports. The meeting (at least with regard to
our friends) was entirely accidental," etc. The second
letter alike contradicts the whole story ; and both attribute
much of the disturbance to the unpopularity of the Adminis-
tration; their health being unluckily proposed, raised a
few faint claps but a general hiss, and then the disturbance
began. A letter from Lord Middlesex to Spence, gives a
still fuller account of the affair. By the style of the letter
one may judge what sort of heads the members had, and
what was reckoned the polite way of speaking to a waiter in
those days ; —
" Whitehall, Feb. y« 9th, 1735.
" Dear Spanco, — I don't in the least doubt but long before
this time the noise of the riot on the 30th of January has
reached you at Oxford ; and though there has been as many
lies and false reports raised upon the occasion in this good
city as any reasonable man could expect, yet I fancy eveh
28 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
those may be improved or increased before they come to
you. Now, that you may be able to defend your friends (as
I don't in the least doubt you have an inclination to do),
111 send you the matter of fact literally and truly as it
happened, upon my honour. Eight of us happened to meet
together the 30th of January, it might have been the loth
of June, or any other day in the year, but the mixture of
the company has convinced most reasonable people by this
time that it was not a designed or premeditated affair. We
met, then, as I told you before, by chance upon this day,
and after dinner, having drunk very plentifully, especially
some of the company, some of us going to the window un-
luckily saw a little nasty fire made by some boys in the street,
of straw I think it was, and immediately cried out, ' D — n it,
why should not we have a fire &s well as anybody else ?' Up
comes the drawer, ' D — ^n you, you rascal, get us a bonfire.'
Upon which the imprudent puppy runs down,; and without
making any difficulty (which he- might have' done by a
thousand excuses, and which if he had,' in all probability,
some pf us would have come more to our senses), sends for
the faggots, and in an instant behold a large fire blazing
before the door. Upon which some of us> wiser, or rather
soberer than the rest, bethinking themselves then, for the
first time, what day it was, and fearing the consequences a
bonfire on that day might have, proposed drinking loyal and
popular healths to the mob (out of the window), which by
this time was very great, in order to convince them we did
not intend it as a ridicule upon that day. The healths that
were drank out of the window were these, and these only:
the King, Queen, and Royal Family, the Protestant Succes-
sion, Liberty and Property, the present Administration.
Upon which the first stone was flung, and then began our
siege : which, for the time it lasted j was at least as furious
as that of Philipsbourg ; it was more than an hour before we
got any assistance; the more sober part of us, doing this,
had a fine time of it, fighting to prevent fighting ; in danger
THE CALVES HEAD CLUB. 29
of being knocked on the head by the stones that came in at
the windows ; in danger of being run through by our mad
friends, who, sword in hand, swore they would go out,
though they first made their way through us. At length the
justice, attended by a strong body of guards, came and
dispersed the populace. The person who first stirred up the
mob is known ; he first gave them money, and then harangued
them in a most violent manner ; I don't know if he did not
fling the first stone himself. He is an Irishman and a priest,
and belonging to Imberti, the Venetian Envoy. This is
the whole story from which so many calves' heads, bloody
napkins, and the Lord knows what, has been made ; it has
bieen the talk of the town and the country, and small beer
and bread and cheese to my friends the gatretteers in Grub-
street, for these few days past. I, as well as your fiiends,
hojje to see yoii soon in town. After so much prose, I can't
help ending witli a few verses : —
O had I lived; in merry Charles's days.
When dull the wise were called, and wit had praiSe ;
When deepest politics could never pass
For aught; but surer tokens of an ass ;
' When >nbt the frolicks of one drunken night
Couldjtouch your honour, make your ,£ime- less bright ; . ,
. Tho' mob'form'd scandal rag'd, and Papal spi^ht. n,
" Middlesex."
To sum up, the whole affair was a hoax, kept klive by the
pretended "Secret Histoiy." An accidental riot, fellowing
a debauch on one 30th of Ja;iuary, has been distributed be-
tween two successive years, owjrig-tQ a misappteheftSipn of
the niodb of reckoniijg ):itiie' pre^al^nt in theearlyjiart dfthe
lasi cejituiT^'; ■and,'ftere'is''%ci' ihbre- reason' for, belie\ang in
the eHstepcf'ofTCalVe^^'ftfea^Cliib in ^734-5' than there
isforbe\i'e\dn|it'Vxisflat'.the'pr^s,eiit,tim'e. ^
3P CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The King's Head Club.
• Another Club of this period was the " Club of Kings," or
" the King Club," all the members of which were called
" King." Charles himself was an honorary member.
A more important Club was " the King's Head Club,"
instituted for affording the Court and Government support,
and to influence Protestant zeal : it was designed by the
unscrupulous Shaftesbury : the members were a sort of De-
cembrists of their day; but they failed in their aim, and
ultimately expired under the ridicule of being designated
" hogs in armour." " The gentlemen of that worthy Society,"
says Roger North, in his Examen, "held their evening
sessions continually at the King's Head Tavern, over
against the Inner Temple Gate. But upon the occasion of
the signal of a green ribbon, agreed to be worn in their hats
in the days of street engagements, like the coats-of-arms of
valiant knights of old, whereby all warriors of the Society
might be distinguished, and not mistake friends for enemies,
they were called also the Great Ribbon Club. Their seat
was in a sort of Carfour at Chancery-lane end, a centre of
business and company most proper for such anglers of
fools. The house was double balconied in the front, as
may be yet seen, for the clubsters to issue forth in fresco
with hats and no peruques ; pipes in their mouths, merry
faces, and diluted throats, for vocal encouragement of the
canaglia below, at bonfires, on usual and unusual occasions.
They admitted all strangers that were confidingly intro-
duced ; for it was a main end of their Institution to make
proselytes, especially of the raw estated youth, newly come
to town. This copious Society were to the faction in and
about London a sort of executive power, and, by corre-
spondence, all over England. The resolves of the more
retired councils of the ministry of the Factioii were brought
in here, and orally insinuated to the company, Vhether it
THE KING'S HEAD CLUB. 31
were lyes, defamations, commendations, projects, etc., and
so, like water diffused, spread all over the town ; whereby
that which was digested at the Club over night, was, like
nourishment, at every assembly, male and female, the next
day : — and thus the younglings tasted of political adminis-
tration, and took themselves for notable counsellors."
North regarded the Green Ribbon Club as the focus of
disaffection and sedition, but his mere opinions are not
to be depended on. Walpole calls him " the voluminous
squabbler in behalf of the most unjustifiable excesses of
Charles the Second's Administration." Nevertheless, his
relation of facts is very curious, and there is no reason
to discredit his account of those popular " routs,'' to use his
own phrase, to which he was an eye-witness.
The conversation and ordinary discourse of the Club, he
informs us, "was chiefly upon the subject of Braveur,
in defending the cause of Liberty and Property; what
every true Protestant and Englishman ought to venture to
do, rather than be overpowered with Popery and Slavery."
They were provided with silk armour for defence, " against
the time that Protestants were to be massacred," and, in
order "to be assailants upon fair occasion," they had
recommended to them, " a certain pocket weapon which,
for its design and efficacy, had the honour to be called
a Protestant Flail. The handles resembled a farrier's blood-
stick, and the fall was joined to the end by a strong nervous
ligature, that, in its swing, fell just short of the hand, and
was made of Lignum Vita, or rather, as the poets termed it,
Mortis.'' This engine was " for street and crowd-work, and
lurking perdue in a coat-pocket, might readily saUy out to
execution ; and so, by clearing a great Hall or Piazza, or so,
carry an Election by choice of Polling, called knocking
down!" The armour of the hogs is further described as
" silken back, breast, and potts, that were pretended to be
pistol-proof, in which any man dressed up was as safe as in
a house, for it was impossible any one would go to strike
32 CLUB LIFE OM LONDON.
him for laughing, so ridiculous was the figure, as they say,
oi hogs in armour."
In describing the Pope-burning procession of the 1 7th of
November, 1680, Roger North says, that "the Rabble first
changed their title, and were called the Mob in the
assemblies of this Club. It was their Beast of Burthen,
and called first, mobile vtdgiis, but fell naturally into the
contraction of one syllable, and ever since is become proper
English."
We shall not describe these Processions : the grand object
was the burning of figures, prepared for the occasion, and
brought by the Mob in procession, from the further end of
London with " staffiers and link-boys sounding,'' and " coming
up near to the Club-Quality in the balconies, against which
was provided a huge boniire ;" " and then, after numerous
platoons and volleys of squibs discharged, these Bamboches
were, with redoubled noise, committed to the flames."
These outrageous celebrations were suppressed in 1683.
Street Clubs.
During the first quarter of the last century, there were
formed in the metropolis " Street Clubs," of the inhabitants
of the same street ; so that a man had but to stir a few
houses from his own door to enjoy his Club and the society
of his neighbours. There was another inducement: the
streets were then so unsafe that " the nearer home a man's
club lay the bettei; for his clothes and his purse. Even
riders in coaches were not safe from mounted footpads, and
from the danger of upsets in the huge ruts and pits which
intersected the streets. The passenger who could not afford a
coach had to pick his way, after dark, along the dimly-lighted,
ill-paved thoroughfares, seamed by filthy open kennels,
besprinkled from projecting spouts, bordered by gaping
cellars, guarded by feeble old watchmen, and beset with
daring street-robbers. But there were worse terrors of the
THE MOHOCKS. 33
night than the chances of a splashing or a sprain, — risks
beyond those of an interrogatory by the watch, or of a
'stand and deliver' from a footpad." These were the.
lawless rake-hells who, banded into clubs, spread terror and
dismay through the streets. Sir John Fielding, in his
cautionary book, published in 1776, described the dangerous
attacks of intemperate rakes in hot blood, who, occasionally
and by way of bravado, scour the streets, to show their
manhood, not their humanity ; put the watch to flight ; and
now and then murdered some harailess, inoffensive person.
Thus, although there are in London no ruffians and bravos,
as in some parts of Spain and Italy, who will kill for hire,
yet there is no resisting anywhere the wild sallies of youth,
and the extravagances that flow from debauchery and wine.
One of our poets has given a necessary caution, especially
to strangers, in the following lines : —
Prepare for death, if here at night you roain,
And sign your -ivill before you sup from home ;
Some fiery fop with new commission vain,
Who sleeps on brambles 'till he kills his man ;
Some frolic druiikard, reeling from a feast,
Provokes a broil, and stabs you iii a jest.
Yet, ev'n these heroes, mischievously. gay,
Lords of the street, and terrors of the way ;
Flush'd as they are with folly, youth,, and wine,
Their prudent insults to the poor confine ;
Afar they mark the flambeau's bright approach,
And shun the shining train and gilded coach.
The Mohocks.
This nocturnal fraternity met in the days of Queen Anne :
but it had been for many previous years the favourite a;muse-
ment of dissolute young men to form themselves into Clubs
and Associations for committing all sorts of excesses in the
public streets, and alike attacking orderly pedestrians^ and
even defenceless women. These Cltibs took various slang'
D
34 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
designations. At the Restoration they were " Mums " and
" Tityre-tus." They were succeeded by the " Hectors " and
" Scourers," when, says Shadwell, " a man could not go from
the Rose Tavern to the Piazza once, but he must venture
his life twice." Then came the " Nickers," whose delight it
was to smash windows with showers of halfpence ; next were
the " Hawkabites ;" and lastly, the " Mohocks." These
last are described in the Spectator, No. 324, as a set of men
who have borrowed their name from a sort of cannibals, in
India, who subsist by plundering and devouring all the
nations about them. The president is styled " Emperor of
the Mohocks j" and his arms are a Turkish crescent, which
his iinperial majesty bears at present in a very extraordinary
manner engraven upon his forehead ; in imitation of which
the Memfcers prided themselves in tattooing ; or slashing
people's faces with, as Gay wrote, " new invented wounds."
Their avowed design was mischief, and upon this foundation
all their rales and orders were framed. They took care to
drink themselves to a pitch beyond reason or humanity, and
then made a general sally, arid attacked all who were in the
streets. Some were knocked down, others stabbed, and others
cut and carbonadoed. To put the watch to a total rout, and
mortify some of those inoffensive militia, was reckoned a
coup d'klat. They had special barbarities, which they
executed upon their prisoners. " Tipping the • lion " was
squeezing the nose flat to the face and boring out the eyes
with their fingers. " Dancing-masters " were those who
taught their scholars to cut capers by running swords
through their legs. The " Tumblers " set women on their
heads. The " Sweaters " worked in parties of half-a-dozen,
surrounding their victims with the points of their swords.
The Sweater upon whom the patient turned his back, pricked
him in " that part whereon schoolboys are punished ;'' and
as he veered round from the smart, each Sweater repeated
this pinking operation ; " after this jig had gone two or three
times round, and the patient was thought to have sweat
THE MOHOCKS. 35
sufficiently, he was very handsomely rubbed down by some
attendants who carried with thtem instruments for that pur-
pose, when they discharged him. An adventure of this kind
is narrated in No. 332 of the Spectator: it is there termed a
bagnio, for the orthography of which the writer consults the
sign-posts of the bagnio in Newgate-street and that in
Chancery-lane.
Another savage diversion of the Mohocks was their thrust-
ing women into barrels, and rolling them down Snow or
Liidgate Hill, as thus sung by Cay, in his Trivia : —
Now is the time that rakes their revels keep ;
Kindlers of riot, enemies of sleep.
His scattered pence the flying Nicker flings,
And with the copper shower the casement rings.
Who has not heard the Scourer's midnight fame? ^
Who has not trembled at the Mohock's name ?
Was there a watchman took his hourly rounds
Safe from their blows or new-invented wounds ?
I pass their desperate deeds and mischiefs, done
Where from Snow-hill black steepy torrents run ;
How matrons, hooped within the hogshead's womb.
Were tumbled furious thence ; the rolling tomb
O'er the stones thunders, bounds from side to side ;
So Regulus, to save his country, died.
Swift was inclined to doubt these savageries, yet went ion
some apprehension of them. He writes, jnst at the date of
the above Spectator : " Here is the devil and all to do with
these ^ Mohocks. Grub-street papers about them fly like
lightning, and a list printed of near eighty put into several
prisons, and all a lie, and I begin to think there is no truth,
or very little in the whole story. He that abused Davenant
was a drunken gentleman ; none of that gang. My man tells
me that one of the lodgers heard in a coffee-house, publicly,
that one design of the Mohocks was upon me, if they could
catch me ; and though I believe nothing of it, I forbear
walking late ; and they have put me to the charge of some
shillings already." — yourtial to Stella, 1712.
D 2
36 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Swift mentions, among the outrages of the Mohocks, that
two of them caught a maid of old Lady Winchilsea's at the
door of her house in the Park with a candle, and had just
lighted out somebody. They cut all her face, and beat her
without any provocation.
At length the villanies of the Mohocks were attempted to
be put down by a Royal proclamation, issued on the i8th
of March, 1712 : this, however, Ijad very little effect, for we
soon find Swift exclaiming: "They go on still and cut
people's faces every night ! but they shan't cut mine ; I like
it better as it is."
Within a week after the Proclamation, it was proposed
that Sir Roger de Coverley should go to the play, where he
had not been for twenty years. The Spectator, No. 335,
says : " My friend asked me if there would not be some
danger in coming home late in case the Mohocks should be
abroad. ' I assure you,' says he, ' I thought I had fallen
into their hands last night; for I observed two or three
lusty black men that followed me half-way up Fleet-street,
and mended their pace behind me in proportion as I put on
to get away from them.' " However, Sir Roger threw them
out, at the end of Norfolk Street, where he doubled the
corner, and got shelter in his lodgings before they could
imagine what was become of him. It was finally arranged
that Captain Sentry should' make one of the party for the
play, and that Sir Roger's coach should be got ready, the
fore wheels being newly mended. " The Captain," says the
Spectator, " who did not fail to meet rne at, the apppinted
hour, bid Sir Roger fear nothing, for that he had put on the
same sword which he made use of at the battle of Steenkirk.
Sir Roger's servants, and among the rest,- my old friend the
butler, had, I found, provided themsdves with good oaken
plants, to attend their master upon this occasion. When he
placed him in his coach, with myself at his left hand, the
Captain before him, and his butler at the head of ■ his
footmen in the rear, we convoyed him in safety to the play-
THE MOHOCKS.
37
house." The play was Ambrose Phillips's new tragedy of
The Distressed Mother: at its close, Sir Rogelr went out fully
satisfied with his entertainment; and, says the Spectator,
"we guarded him to his lodging in the same manner that
we guarded him to the playhouse;"
The subject is resumed with much humour, by Budgell,
in the Spectator, No. 347, where the doubts as to the actual
existence of Mohocks are examined. " They will have it,"
says the Spectator, "that the Mohocks are like those spectres
and apparitions which frighten several towns and villages in
Her Majesty's dominions, though they were never seen by
any of the inhabitants. Others are apt to think that these
Mohocks are a kind of bull-beggars, first invented by
prudent married men and masters of families, in order to
deter their wives and daughters from taking the air at un-
seasonable hours ; and that when they tell them ' the Mo-
hocks will catch them,' it is a caution of the same nature
with that of our forefathers, when they bid their children
have a care of Raw-head and Bloody-bones." Then we
have, from a Correspondent (A tiie Spectator, " the manifesto
of Taw Waw Eben Zan Kaladar, Emperor of the Mohocks,"
' vindicating his imperial dignity from the false aspersions
cast on it, signifying the imperial abhorrence and detestation
of such tumultuous and irregular proceedings ; and notifying
that all wounds, hurts, damage, or detriment, received in
limb or limbs, otherwise than shall he hereafter specified, shall
be committed to the care of the Emperor's surgeon, and
cured at his own expense, in some one or other of those
hospitals which he is erecting for that purpose.
Among other things it is decreed "that they never tip the
lion upon man, woman, or child, till the clock at St.
Dunstan's shall have struck one ;" " that the sweat be never
given till between the hours of one and two ;" " that the
sweaters do establish their hummums in such close places,
alleys, nooks and corners, that the patient 01 patients may
not be in danger of catching cold ;" " that the tumblers, to
38 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
whose care we chiefly commit the female sex, confine them-
selves to Drury Lane and the purlieus of the Temple," etc.
"Given from our Court at the Devil Tavern," etc.
.: The Mohocks held together until nearly the end of the
reign of George the First.
Blasphemous Clubs.
The successors of the Mohocks added blasphemy to riot.
Smollett attributes the profaneness and profligacy of the
period to the demoralization produced by the South Sea
Bubble ; and Clubs were formed specially for the indulgence
of debauchery and profaneness. Prominent among these
was " the Hell-fire Club," of which the Duke of Wharton
was a leading spirit : —
Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise.
Born with whate'er could win it from the wise,
Women and fools must like him, or he dies.
Though wondering senates hung on all he spoke.
The club must hail him master of the joke. — Pope.
So high did the tide of profaneness run at this time, that a
Bill was brought into the House of Lords for its suppression.
It was in a debate on this Bill that the Earl of Peterborough
declared, that though he was for a Parliamentary King, he
was against a Parliamentary religion ; and that the Duke of
Wharton pulled an old family Bible out of his pocket, in
order to controvert certain arguments delivered from the
episcopal bench.
Mug-house Clubs.
Among the political Clubs of the metropolis in the early
part of the eighteenth century, one of the most popular was
the Mug-house Club, which met in a great Hall in Long
Acre every Wednesday and Saturday, during the winter.
The house received its name from the simple circumstance
MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. .39
that each member drank his ale (the only liquor . used) , out
of a separate mug. The Club is described as a mixture of
gentlemen, lawyers, and statesmen, who met seldom .under
a. hundred. In A journey through England, 1732, we read
of this Club :
" But the most diverting and amusing of all is the Mug-
house Club in Long Acre.
"They have a grave old Gentleman, in his own gray
Hairs, now within a few months of Ninety years old, .who is
their President, and sits in an arm'd chair some steps higher
than the rest of the company to keep the whole Room in
order. A Harp plays all the time at the lower end of the
Room ; and every now and then one or other of the Com-
pany rises and entertains the rest with a song, and (by the
by) some are good Masters. Here is nothing drunk but
Ale, and evary Gentleman hath his separate Mug, which he
chalks on the Table where he sits as it is brought in; and
every one retires when he pleases, asJrom.a Coffeerhouse.
" The Room is always so diverted with Songs, and drinking
from one Table to another to one . another's Healths, that
there is no room for Politicks, or anything that can sow'r
conversation. . _
. " Dpe must be there by seven to get Room, and after ten
the Company are for the most part gone.
. ,! '^ This is a Winter's Amusement, that is agreeable enough
,to, a Stranger for once or twice, and he is well, diverted with
the.different Humours, when the Mugs overflow."
■ Although in the early days of this Club there was no room
for politics, or anything that could sour conversation, the
Mug-house subsequently became a rallying-place for the
most virulent political antagonism, arising.. out of the change
of dynasty, a weighty matter to debate over mugs of ale.
The death of Anne brought on the Hanover succession.
The Tories had then so much the better of the other party,
that they gained the mob on all public occasions to their
side. It then became necessary for King George's friends
40 CLUB LIFE OF L0NJ30N.
to do something to counteract this tendency. Accordingly,
they established Mug-houses, like that of Long Acre, through-
out the metropolis, for well-afifected tradesmen to meet and
keep up the spirit of loyalty to the Protestant succession.
First, they had one in St. John's-lane, chiefly under the
patronage of Mr. Blenman, member of the Middle Temple,
who took for his motto, " Pro rege et lege." Then arose
the Roebuck Mug-house, in Cheapside, the haunt of a
fraternity of young men, who had been organized for political
action before the end of the late reign.
According to a pamphlet on the subject, dated in 17x7,
" the next Mug-houses opened in the City were at Mrs.
Read's, in Salisbury-court, in Fleet-street, and at the Harp
in Tower-street, and another at the Roebuck in Whitechapel.
■ About the same time several other Mug-houses were erected
in the suburbs, for the reception and entertainment of the
like loyal Societies : viz. one at the Ship, in Tavistock-street,
Coveiit Garden, which is mostly frequented by royal officers
of the army, another at the Black Horse, in Queen-street
near Lincoln's Inn Fields, set up and carried on by gentle-
men, servants to that noble patron of loyalty, to whom this
vindication of it is inscribed [the Duke of Newcastle] ; a
third was set up at the Nag's Head, in James-street, Covent
Garden ; a fourth at the Fleece, in Burleigii-street, near
Exeter Change ; a fifth at the Hand and Tench, near the
Seven Dials; several in Spittlefields, by the French refugees ;
one in Southwark Park; and another in the Artillery-
ground." Another rioted Mug-house was the Magpie, with-
out Newgate, which house still exists as the Magpie and
Stump, in the Old Bailey. At all these houses it was
customary in the forenoon to exhibit the whole of the mugs
belonging to the estabhshment, in a row in front of the
house.
' The frequenters of these several Mug-houses formed them-
selves into " Mug-house Clubs," known severally by some
distinctive name, and each Club had its President to rule its
MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. 41
meetings and keep ordeh The President was treated with
great ceremony and respect : he was conducted to his chair
every evening at about seven o'clock, by members carrying
candles before and behind him, and accompanied with
music. Having taken a seat, he appointed a Vice-president,
and drank the health of the company assembled, a compli-
ment which the company returned. The evening was then
passed in drinking successively loyal and other healths, and
in singing songs. Soon after ten they broke up, the Presi-
dent naming his successor for the next evening ; and before
he left the chair, a collection was made for the musicians.
We shall now see how these Clubs took so active a part
in the violent political struggles of the time. The Jacobites
had laboured with much zeal to secure the alliance of the
street mob, and they had used it with great effect, in con-
nexion with Dr. Sacheverell, in overturning Queen Anne's
Whig Government, and paving the way for the return of the
exiled family. Disappointment at the accession of George I.
rendered the party of the Pretender more unscrupulous ; the
mob was excited to greater excesses, and the streets of the
metropolis were occupied by an infuriated rabble, and pre-
sented a nightly scene of riot. It was under these circum-
stances that the Mug-house Clubs volunteered, in a very
disorderly manner, to be champions of order ; and with this
purpose it became part of their evening's entertainment to
march into the street, and fight the Jacobite mob. This
practice commenced in the autumn of 17 15, when the Club
called the Loyal Society, which met at the Roebuck in
Cheapside, distinguished itself by its hostility to Jacobitism.
On one occasion this Club burned the Pretender in effigy.
Their first conflict with the mob, recorded in the newspapers,
occurred on the 31st of January, 1715, the birthday of the
Prince of Wales, which was celebrated by illuminations and
bonfires. There were a few Jacobite alehouses, chiefly on
Holbom Hill, in Sacheverell's period ; and on Ludgate-hill :
the frequenters of the latter stirred up the mob to raise a
42 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
riot there, put out the bonfire, and break the windovfs which
were illuminated. The Loyal Society, meij, receiving in-
telligence of what was going on, hurried to the spot, and
thrashed and defeated the rioters.
On the 4th of November in the same year, the birthday
of King William III., the Jacobite mob made a large bonfire
in the Old Jewry, to bum an effigy of the King ; but the
Mug-house men came upon them again, gave them " due
chastisement with oaken plants," extinguished their bonfire,
and carried King William in triumph to the Roebuck.
Next day was the commemoration of Gunpowder Treason,
and the loyal mob had its pageant. A long procession was
formed, having in front a figure of the .infant .Pretender,
accompanied by two men bearing each a warming-pan,
in allusion to the story about his birth ; and followed by
effigies in gross caricature of the Pope, the Pretendejr, the
Diike of Ormond, Lord Bolingbroke, and the Earl of Marr,
with halters round their necks ; and all of them were to be
burned in a large bonfire made in Cheapside. The pro-
cession, starting from the Roebuck, went through Newgate-
street, and up Holbom-hill, where they compelled the bells
of St. Andrew's church, of which SachevereU wa? rector, to
ring; thence through Lincoln's Inn Fields and Coyent
Garden to the gate of St. James's Palape ; returning by way
.of Pall Mall and the Strand, and through St. Paul's
Churchyard. They had met with no interruption, on their
way, but on their return to Cheapside, they found that,
during their absence, that quarter had been invaded by the
Jacobite mob, who had carried away all the fuel which had
been collected for the bonfire.
On November 17, in the same year, the Loyal Society
met at the Roebuck to celebrate the anniversary , of the
Accession of Queen Elizabeth ; and, while busy with their
mugs, they received information that the Jacobites were
assembled in great force, in St. Martin's-le-Grand, and were
preparing to burn the effigies of King William and King
MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. 43
George, along with the Duke of Marlborough. They were
so near, in fact, that their party-shouts of High Church,
Ormond, and King James, must have been audible at the
Roebuck, which stood opposite Bow Church. The Jacobites
were starting on their procession, when they were overtaken
in Newgate-street, by the Mug-house men from the Roebuck,
and a desperate encounter took place, in which the
Jacobites were defeated, and many of them were seriously
injured. Meanwhile the Roebuck itself had been the scene
of a much more serious tumult. During the absence of the
great mass of the members of the Club, another body
of Jacobites, much more numerous than those engaged in
Newgate Street, suddenly assembled, attacked the Roebuck
Mug-house, broke its windows, and those of the adjoining
houses, and with terrible threats, attempted to force the
door. One of the few members of the Loyal Society who
remained at home, discharged a gun upon , those of the
assailants who were attacking the door, and killed one of
their leaders. This and the approach of the Lord Mayor
and city officers, caused the mob to disperse j but the
Roebuck was exposed to attacks during several following
. nights, after which the mobs remained tolerably quiet during
the winter.
Early in 17 16, however, these riots were renewed with
greater violence, and preparations were made for an active
campaign. The Mug-houses were re-fitted, and re-opened
with ceremonious entertainments. New songs were com-
posed to stir up the Clubs ; and collections of these
Mug-house songs were printed. The Jacobite mob was
heard beating with its well-known call, marrow-bones and
cleavers, and both sides were well equipped with staves ot
oak, their usual arms for the fray, though other weapons and
missiles were in common use. One of the Mug-house songs
thus describes the way in which these street fights were
conducted : —
44 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Since the Tories could not fight,
And their master took his flight,
They labour to keep up their faction ;
With a bough and a stick.
And a stone and a brick,
They equip their roaring crew for action.
Thus in battle array,
At the close of the day,
After wisely debating their plot,
Upon windows and stall
They courageously fall,
And boast a great victory they've got.
But, alas ! silly boys !
For all the mighty noise
Of their " High Church and Ormond forever !"
A brave Whig, with one hand.
At George's command,
Can make their mightiest hero to quiver.
On March 8, another great Whig anniversary, the day
of the death of WilUam III., commenced the more serious
Mug-house riots of 1716. A large Jacobite mob assembled
to their own watch-cry, and marched along Cheapside, to
attack the Roebuck ; but they were soon driven back by a
small party of the Royal Society, who then marched in
procession through Newgate Street, to the Magpie and
Stump, and then by the Old Bailey to Ludgate Hill. When
about to return, they found the Jacobite mob had collected
in great force in their rear ; and a fierce engagement
■took place in Newgate Street, when the Jacobites were
again worsted. Then, on the evening of the 23rd of April,
the anniversary of the birth of Queen Anne, there were
great battles in Cheapside, and at the end of Giltspur
Street ; and in the immediate neighbourhood of the Roe-
buck and the Magpie. Other great tumults took place on
the 29th of May, Restoration Day; and on the loth of
June, the Pretender's birthday. From this time the Roebuck
is rarely mentioned.
The Whigs, who met in the Mug-house, kept by Mr,
MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. 45
Read, in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, appear to have been
peculiarly noisy in their cups, and thus rendered themselves
the more obnoxious to the mob. On one occasion, July
20, their violent party-toasts, which they drank in the
parlour with open windows, collected a large crowd of
persons, who became at last so incensed by some tipsy
Whigs inside, that they commenced a furious attack upon
the house, and threatened to pull it down and make a
bonfire of its materials in the middle of Fleet Street. The
Whigs immediately closed their windows and barricaded
the doors, having sent a messenger by a back door, to the
Mug-house — in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, begging
that the persons there assembled would come to the rescue.
The call was immediately responded to ; the Mug-house
men proceeded in a body down the Strand and Fleet
Street, armed with staves and bludgeons, and commenced
an attack on the mob, who still threatened the demolition
of the house in Salisbury Court. The inmates sallied out,
armed with pokers and tongs, and whatever they could lay
their hands upon, and being joined by their friends froni
Covent Garden, the mob was put to flight, and the Mug-
house men remained masters of the field.
The popular indignation was very great at this defeat;
and for two days crowds collected in the neighbourhood,
and vowed they would have revenge. But the knowledge
that a squadron of horse was drawn up at Whitehall, ready
to ride into the City on the first alarm, kept order. , On the
third day, however, the people found a leader in the person
of one Vaughan, formerly a Bridewell boy, who instigated
the mob to take revenge for their late defeat. They
followed him with shouts of " High Church and Ormond !
down with the Mug-house !" and Read, the landlord
dreading that they would either burn or pull down his
house, prepared to defend himself. He threw up a window
and presented a loaded blunderbuss, and, vowed ,he -wrould
discharge its contents into the body of the first man who
46 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
advanced agaiinst :his house. This threat exasperated the
mob, who ran dgainst the door with furious yellsv Read
was as good as his word, — ^he fired, and the unfortunate
man Vaughan fell dead upon the spot. The people, now
frantic, severe to hang up the landlord from his own sign-
post. They forced the door, pulled down the sign, and
entered the hotise, where Read would assuredly have beeri
sacrificed to their fury, if they had found him. He,
however, had with great risk escaped by a back-door.
Disappointed at this, the mob broke the furniture to pieces,
destroyed everything that lay in their way, and left only the
bare walls of the house. They now threatened to burn the
whole street, and were about to set fire to Read's house,
when the Sheriffs, with a posse of constables, arrived. The
Riot Act was read, but disregarded j and the Sheriffs sent
to Whitehall for a detachment of the military. A squadron
of horse sooii arrived, and cleared the streets, taking five
of the most active rioters into custody.
Read, the landlord, was captured on the following day,
and tried for the wilful murder of Vaughan ; he was, however,
acquitted of the capital charge, and found guilty of man-
slaughter only. The five rioters were also brought to trial,
and met with a harder fate. They were all found guilty of
riot and rebellion, and sentenced to death at Tyburn. •
This exMiple damped the courage of the rioters, and
alarmed all parties; so that we hear no more of the Mug-
house riots, until a few months later, a paihphlet appeared
with the title, Down with the Mug; or Reasons for suppress^
ing the Mug-houses, by an author who only gave the initials
Sir H — ^ — M , but who seems to have so much of what
was thought to be a Jacobite spirit, that it provoked a
reply, entitled the Mug Vi?idicated.
The account of 1722 states that many an encounter they
had, and many were the riots, till at last tke Government
was obliged by an Act of Parliament to put an end to this
strife, which had this good effect, that upon pulling down of
THE KIT-KAT CLUB. 47
the Mug-house in Salisbury Court, for which some boys
were hanged on this Act, the city has not been troubled
with them since.
There is some doubt as to the first use of the term "Mug.
house." In a scarce Collection of One Hundred and Eighty
Loyal Songs, all written since 1678^ Fourth Edition, 1694,
is a song in praise of the " Mug," which shows that Mug-
houses had that name previous to the Mug-house riots. It
has also been stated that the beer-mugs were originally
fashioned into a grotesque resemblance of Lord Shaftes-
bury's face, or " ugly mug," as it was called, and that this is
the derivation of the word.
, The Kit-Kat Club.
This famous Club was a threefold celebrity — political,
literary, and artistic. It was the great Society of Whig
leaders, formed about the year 1700, tenip. William III.,
consisting of thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen zealously
attached to the House of Hanover; among whom the Dukes
of Somerset, Richmond, Grafton, Devonshire, and Marl-
borough, and (after the accession of George I.) the Duke of
Newcastle ; the Earls of Dorset, Sunderland, Manchester,
Wharton, and Kingston ; Lords Halifax and Somers ; Sir
Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Granville, Addison,
Garth, Maynwaring, Stepney, and Walsh. They are said to
have first met at an obscure house in Shire-lane, by Temple
Bar, at the house of a noted mutton-pieman, one Christopher
Katt; from whom the Club, and the pies that formed a
standing dish at the Club suppers, both took their name of
Kit-Kat. In the Spectator, No. 9, however, they are said to
have derived their title not from the maker of the pie, but
from the pie itself, which was called a Kit-Kat, as we now
say a Sandwich ; thus, in a prologue to a comedy of 1700 :
A Kit-Kat is a supper for a lord ;
but Dr. King, in his Art of Cookery, is for the pieman :
Immortal made, as Kit-Kat by his pies.
48. CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The origin and early history of the Kit-Kat Club is obscure.
Elkanah Settle addressed, in 1699, a manuscript poem "To
the most renowned the President and the rest of the Knights
of the most noble Order of the Toast," in which verses is
asserted the dignity of the Society ; and Malone supposes
the Order of the Toast to have been identical with the Kit-
Kat Club : this was in 1699. The toasting-glasses, which
we shall presently mention, may have something to do with
this presumed identity.
Ned Ward, in his Secret History of Clubs, at once connects
the Kit-Kat Club with Jacob Tonson, " an amphibious
mortal, chief merchant to the Muses." Yet this is evidently
a caricature. The maker of the mutton-pies, Ward main-
tains to be a person named Christopher, who lived at the
sign of the Cat and Fiddle, in Gray's Inn-lane, whence he
removed to keep a pudding-pye shop, near the Fountain '•
Tavern, in the Strand. Ward commends his mutton-pies, •
cheese-cakes, and custards, and the pieman's interest in the
sons of Parnassus ; and his inviting "a new set of Authors
to a collation of oven trumpery at his friend's house, where
they were nobly entertained with as curious a batch of pastry
delicacies as ever were seen at the winding-up of a Lord
Mayor's feast;'' adding that "there was not a mathematical
figure in all Euclid's Elements but what was presented to
the table in baked wares, whose cavities were filled with fine
eatable varieties fit for the gods or poets." Mr. Charles
Knight, in the Shilling Magazine, No. 2, maintains that by
the above is meant, that Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, was
the pieman's " friend," and that to the customary "whet"
to his authors he added the pastry entertainment. Ward
adds, that this grew into a weekly meeting, provided his, the
bookseller's friends would give him the refusal of their
juvenile productions. This " generous proposal was very
readily agreed to by the whole poetic class, and the cook's
name being Christopher, for brevity called Kit, and his sign ■
being the Cat and Fiddle, they very merrily derived a quaint
Crockford's, St. James's Street. (Gaming Club, 1827-40.)
White's Club, on the left of St. James's Palace.
(From a Drawing of the time of Queen Anne.)
THE KIT-KAT CLUB. 49
denomination from puss and her master, and from thence
called themselves of the Kit-Cat Club."
A writer in the Book of Days, however, states, that
Christopher Cat, the pastry-cook, of King-street, West-
minster, was the keeper of the tavern, where the Club met ;
but Shire-lane was, upon more direct authority, the pieman's
abode.
We agree with the National Review, that " it is hard to
believe, as we pick our way along the narrow and filthy
pathway of Shire-lane, that in this blind alley [?], some
hundred and fifty years ago, used to meet many of the finest
gentlemen and choicest wits of the days of Queen Anne and
the first George. Inside one of those frowsy and low-ceiled
rooms, now tenanted by abandoned women or devoted to
the sale of greengroceries and small coal, — Halifax has
conversed and Somers unbent, Addison mellowed over a
bottle, Congreve flashed his wit, Vanbrugh let loose his easy
humour, Garth talked and rhymed."
The Club was Hterary and gallant as well as political..
Tl,e nieir.beis subscribed 400 guineas for the encourage-
ment of good comedies in 1 709. The Club had its toast-
ing-glasses, inscribed with a verse, or toast, to some reigning
beauty J among whom were the four shining daughters of
the Duke of Marlborough — Lady Godolphin, Lady Sunder-
land, Lady Bridgewater, and Lady Monthermer; Swift's
friends, Mrs. Long and Mrs. Barton, the latter the lovely
and witty niece of Sir Isaac Newton j the Duchess of Bolton,
Mrs. Brudenell, and Lady Carlisle, Mrs. DL Kirk, and Lady
Wharton.
Dr. Arbuthnot, in the following epigram, seems to derive
the name of the Club from this custom of toasting ladies
after dinner, rather than from the renowned maker of
tiutton-pies : —
Whence deathless Kit-Kat took his name.
Few critics can unriddle :
Some say from pastrycook it came.
And some from Cat and Fiddle.
E
Sa CLUB LIFE Of LONDON.
From no trim beaus its name it boasts,
Grey statesmen or green wits,
But from this pell-mell pack of toasts
Of old Cats and young Kits.
Lord Halifax wrote for the toasting-glasses the following
verses in 1703 ; —
The Duchess of St, Albans.
The line of Vere, so long renown'd in arms,
Concludes with lustre in St. Alban's charms.
Her conquering eyes have made their race complete :
They rose in valour, and in beauty set.
The Duchess of Beaujort.
Offspring of a tuneful sire,
Blest with more than mortal fire ;
likeness of a Mother's face,
Blest with more than mortal grace :
You with double charms surprise.
With his wit, and with her eyes.
The Lady Mary Churchill.
Fairest and latest of the beauteous race.
Blest with your parent's wit, and her first blooming face ;
Born with our liberties in William's reign.
Your eyes alone that liberty restrain.
The Lady Sunderland.
All Nature's charms in Sunderland appear,
Bright as her eyes, and as her reason clear ;
Yet still their force to man not safely known,
Seems undiscover'd to herself alone.
The Mademoiselle Spankeim.
Admir'd in Germany, ador'd in France,
Your charms to brighten glory here advance :
The stubborn Britons own your beauty's claim.
And with their native toasts enrol your name.
To Mrs. Barton.
Beauty and wit strove, each in vain,
To vanquish Bacchus and his train ;
But Barton with successful charms,
From both their quivers drew her arms.
The roving God his sway resigns.
And awfully submits his vines.
THE KIT-KAT CLUB. 51
In Spence's Anecdotes (note) is the following additional
account of the Club: "You have heard of the Kit-Kat
Club," says Pope to Spence. " The master of the house
where the club met was Christopher Katt; Tonson was
secretary. The day Lord Mohun and the Earl of Berkeley
were entered of it, Jacob said he saw they were just going
to be ruined. When Lord Mohun broke down the gilded
emblem on the top of his chair, Jacob complained to his
friends, and said a man who would do that, would cut a
man's throat. So that he had the good and the forms of the
society much at heart. The paper was all in Lord Halifax's
handwriting of a subscription of four hundred guineas for
the encouragement of good comedies, and was dated 1709,
soon after they broke up. Steele, Addison, Congreve, Garth,
Vanbrugh, Manwaring, Stepney, Walpole, and Pulteney,
were of it ; so was Lord Dorset and the present Duke.
Manwaring, whom we hear nothing of now, was the ruling
man in all conversations ; indeed, what he wrote had very
little merit in it. Lord Stanhope and the Earl of Essex were
also members. Jacob had his own, and all their pictures,
by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Each member gave his, and he is
going to build a room for them at Bam Elms."
It is from the size at which these portraits were taken (a
three-quarter length), 36 by 28 inches, that the word Kit-
Kat came to be applied to pictures. Tonson had the room
built at Barn Elms ; but the apartment not being sufficiently
large to receive half-length pictures, a shorter canvas was
adopted. In 18 17, the Club-room was standing, but the
pictures had long been removed ; soon after, the room was
united to a bam, to form a riding-house.
In summer the Club met at the Upper Flask, Hampstead
Heath, then a gay resort, with its races, ruffles, and private
marriages.
The pictures passed to Richard Tonson, the descendant
of the old bookseller, who resided at Water-Oakley, on the
banks of the Thames : he added a room to his villa, and
E 2
52 CLUB LIFE. OF LONDON.
here the portraits were hung. On his death the pictures
were bequeathed to Mr. Baker, of Bayfordbury, the repre-
sentative of the Tonson family : all of them were included
in the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester and some in
the International Exhibition of 1862.
The poHtical significance of the Club was such that
Walpole records that though the Club was generally men-
tioned as "a set of wits," they were in reality the patriots
that saved Britain. According to Pope and Tonson, Garth,
Vanbrugh, and Congreve were the three most honest-
hearted, real good men of the poetical members of the
Club.
There were odd scenes and incidents occasionally at the
club meetings. Sir Samuel Garth, physician to George I.,
was a witty member and wrote some of the inscriptions for
the toasting-glasses. Coming one night to the Club, Garth
declared he must soon be gone, having many patients to
attend; but some good wine being produced, he forgot
them. Sir Richard Steele was of the party, and reminding
him of the visits he had to pay. Garth immediately pulled
out his list, which numbered fifteen, and said, " It's no great
matter whether I see them to-night, or not, for nine of them
have such bad constitutions that all the physicians in the
world can't save them ; and the other six have such good
constitutions that all the physicians in the world can't kill
them."
Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor, accompanied Steele and
Addison to one of the Whig celebrations by the Club, of
King WilUam's anniversary ; when Steele had the double
duty of celebrating the day and drinking his friend Addison
up to conversation pitch, he being hardly warmed by that
time. Steele was not fit for it. So, John Sly, the hatter of
facetious memory, being in the house, took it into his head
to come into the company on his knees, with a tankard of
ale in his hand, to drink off to the immortal memory , and to
return in the same manner. Steele, sitting next Bishop
THE KIl-KAT CLUB. S3
Hoadley, whispered him, " Do laugh : it is humanity to
laugh." By-and-by, Steele being too much in the same con-
dition as the hatter, was put into a chair, and sent home.
Nothing would satisfy him but being carried to the Bishop
of Bangor's, late as it was. However, the chairmen carried
him home, and got him upstairs, when his great com-
plaisance would wait on them downstairs, which he did, and
then was got quietly to bed. Next morning Steele sent the
indulgent bishop this couplet :
Virtue with so much ease on Bangor sits,
All faults he pardons, though he none commits.
Mr. Knight successfully defends Tonson from Ward's
satire, and nobly stands forth for the bookseller who
identified himself with Milton, by first making Paradise
Lost popular^ and being the first bookseller who threw open
Shakspeare to a reading public. "The statesmen of the
Kit-Kat Club," he adds, " lived in social union with tlie
Whig writers who were devoted to the charge of the poetry
that opened their road to preferment ; the band of orators
and wits were naturally hateful to the Tory authors that
Harley and Bolingbroke were nursing into the bitter satirists
of the weekly sheets." Jacob Tonson naturally came in for
a due share of invective. In a poem entitled Pactions
Displayed, he is ironically introduced as " the Touchstone of
all modern wit ;" and he is made to vilify the great ones of
Bam Elms :
I am the founder of your loved Kit-Kat,
A club that gave direction to the State :
'Twas there we first instructed all our youth
To talk profane, and laugh at sacred truth :
We taught them how to boast, and rhyme, and bite.
To sleep away the day, and drink away the night.
;'onson deserved better of posterity.
54 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The Tatler's Club in Shire-lane.
Shire-lane, alias Rogue-lane, (which falleth into Fleet-
street by Temple Bar,) has lost its old name — it is now
called Lower Serle's-place. If the morals of Shire-lane
have mended thereby, we must not repine.
Here lived Sir Charles Sedley; and here his son, the
dramatic poet, was born, " neere the Globe." Here, too,
lived Elias Ashmole, and here Antony \ Wood dined with
him : this was at the upper end of the lane. Here, too,
was the Trumpet tavern, where Isaac Bickerstaff met his
Club. At this house he dated a great number of his papers ;
and hence he led down the lane into Fleet-street, the.
deputation of " Twaddlers " from the country, to Dick's
Coffee-house, which we never enter without remembering
the glorious humour of Addison and Steele, in the Tatter,
No. 86. Sir Harry Quickset, Sir Giles Wheelbarrow, and
other persons of quality, having reached the Tatler's by
appointment, and it being settled that they should " adjourn
to some public-house, and enter upon business,'' the pre-
cedence was attended with much difficulty ; when, upon a
false alarm of "lire," all ran down as fast as they could,
without order or ceremony, and drew up in the street.
The Tatler proteeds : " In this order we marched down
Sheer-lane, at the upper end of which I lodge. When we
came to Temple Bar, Sir Harry and Sir Giles got over, but
a run of coaches kept the rest of us on this side of the street ;
however, we all at last landed, and drew up in very good
order before Ben Tooke's shop, who favoured our rallying
with great humanity; from whence we proceeded again;
until we came to Dick's Coifee-house, where I designed to
carry them. Here we were at our old difficulty, and took
up the street upon the same ceremony. We proceeded
through the entry, and were so necessarily kept in order by
the situation, that we were now got into the coffee-house
THE TATLER'S CLUB IN SHIRE-LANE. 55
itself, where, as soon as we had arrived, we repeated our
civilities to each other; after which we marched up to
the high table, which has an ascent to it inclosed in the
middle of the room. The whole house was alarmed at
this entry, made up of persons of so much state and rus-
ticity."
The Taller' s Club is immortalized in his No. 132. Its
members are smokers and old story-tellers, rather easy than
shining companions, promoting the thoughts tranquilly bed-
ward, and not the less comfortable to Mr. Bickerstaff,
because he finds himself the leading wit among them. There
is old Sir Jefirey Notch, who has had misfortunes in the
world, and calls every thriving man a pitiful upstart, by no
means to the general dissatisfaction ! there is Major Match-
lock, who served in the last Civil Wars, and every night tells
them of his having been knocked off his horse at the rising
of the London apprentices, for which he is in great esteem ;
there is honest Dick Reptile, who says little himself, but
who laughs at all the jokes ; and there is the elderly
bencher of the Temple, and, next to Mr. Bickerstaff, the
wit of the company, who has by heart the couplets of
Hudibras, which he regularly applies before leaving the
Club of an evening ; and who, if any modern wit or town
froUc be mentioned, shakes his head at the dulness of the
present age, and tells a story of Jack Ogle. As for Mr.
Bickerstaff himself, he is esteemed among them because
they see he is something respected by others ; but though
they concede to him a great deal of learning, they credit him
with small knowledge of the world, "insomuch that the
Major sometimes, in the height of his military pride, calls
me philosopher; and Sir Jeffrey, no longer ago than last
night, upon a dispute what day of the month it was then
in Holland, pulled his pipe out of his mouth, and cried,
' What does the scholar say to that ?' "
Upon Addison's return to England he found his friend
Steele established among the wits : and they were both
56 CLUB LII'E OF LONDON.
received with great honour at the Trumpet, as well as at
Will's, and the St. James's.
The Trumpet public-house lasted to our time; it was
changed to the Duke of York sign, but has long disappeared :
we remember an old drawing of the Trumpet, by Sam.
Ireland, engraved in the Monthcy Magazine.
The Royal Society Club.
In Sir R. Kaye's Collection, in the British Museum, we
find the following account of the institution of a Society
which at one time numbered among its members some of
the most eminent men in London, in a communication
to the Rev. Sir R. Kaye by Sir Joseph Ayloffe, an original
member :— " Dr. Halley used to come on a Tuesday from
Greenwich, the Royal Observatory, to Child's Coflfee-house,
where literary people met for conversation : and he dined
with his sister, but sometimes they stayed so long that he
was too late for dinner, and they likewise, at their own
home. They then agree to go to a house in Dean's-court,
between an ale-house and a tavern, now a stationer's shop,
where there was a great draft of porter, but not drank in the
house. It was kept by one Reynell. It was agreed that
one of the company should go to Knight's and buy fish in
Newgate-street, having first informed himself how many
meant to stay and dine. The ordinary and liquor usually
came to half-a-crown, and the dinner only consisted of fish
and pudding. Dr. Halley never eat anything but fish, for
he had no teeth. The number seldom exceeded five or six.
It began to take place about 1731; soon afterwards
Reynell took the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard;
and desired Dr. Halley to go with him there. He and
others consented, and they began to have a little meat. On
Dr. Halley's death, Martin Foulkes took the chair. They
afterwards removed to the Mitre (Fleet-street), for the
convenience of the situation with respect to the Royal
THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 57
Society, and as it was near Crane-court, and numbers
wished to become members. It was necessary to give it a
form. The number was fixed at forty members ; one of
whom was to be Treasurer and Secretary of the Royal
Society."
Out of these meetings is said to have grown the Royal
Society Club, or, as it was styled durmg the first half
century of its existence, the Club of Royal Philosophers.
" It was established for the convenience of certain members
who lived in various parts, that they might assemble and dine
together on the days when the Society held its evening meet-
ings ; and from its almost free admission of members of the
Council detained by business, its liberality to visitors, and
its hospitable reception of scientific foreigners, it has been
of obvious utility to the scientific body at large." (Rise and
Progress of the Club, privately printed.)
The foundation of the Club is stated to have been in
the year 1743, and in the Minutes of this date are the
following :^
" Jiules and Orders to be observed by the Thursday's Club,
called the Royal Philosophers. — A Dinner to be ordered every
Thursday for six, at one shilling and sixpence a head for
eating. As many more as come to pay one shilling and
sixpence per head each. If fewer than six come, the
deficiency to be paid out of the fund subscribed. Each
subscriber to pay down six shillings — viz. for four dinners, to
make a fund. A pint of wine to be paid for by every one
that comes, be the number what it will, and no more, unless
more wine is brought in than that amounts to."
In addition to Sir R. Kaye's testimony to the existence
of a club of an earlier date than 1743, there are in the
Minutes certain references to "antient Members of the
Club ;" and a tradition of the ill omen of thirteen persons
dining at the table said to be on record in the Club papers :
"that one of the Royal Philosophers entering the Mitre
Tavern, and finding twelve others about to discuss the fare,
58 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
retreated, and dined by himself in another apartment, in
order to avert the prognostic." Still, no such statement is
now to be found entered, and if ever it were recorded,
it must have been anterior to 1743; curiously enough,
thirteen is a very usual number at these dinners.
The original Members were soon increased by various
Fellows of the Society ; and at first the Club did not consist
exclusively of Royals; but this arrangement not having
been found to work well, the membership was confined to
the Fellows, and latterly to the number of forty. Every
Member was allowed to introduce one friend ; but the
President of the Royal Society was not limited in this
respect.
We must now say a few words as to the several places at
which the Club has dined. The Society had their Anniversary
Dinner at Pontack's celebrated French eating-house, in Ab-
church-lane. City, until 1746. Evelyn notes : "30 Nov. 1694.
Much importuned to take the office of President of the
Royal Society, but I again declined it. Sir Robert South-
well was continued. We all dined at Pontac's, as usual."
Here, in 1699, Dr. Bentley wrote to Evelyn, asking him to,
meet Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Robert Southwell, and other
friends, at dinner, to consider the propriety of purchasing
Bishop Stillingfleet's library for the Royal Society.
From Pontack's, which was found to be inconveniently
situated for the majority of the Fellows, the Society re-
moved to the Devil Tavern, near Temple Bar.
The Minutes record that the Club met at the Mitre
Tavern, in Fleet-street, " over against Fetter-lane," from the
date of their institution j this house being chosen from its
being handy to Crane-cOurt, where the Society then met.
This, be it remembered, was not the Mitre Tavern now
standing in Mitre-court, but "the Mitre Tavern, in Fleet-
street," mentioned by Lilly, in his Life, as the place where
he met old Will. Poole, the astrologer, then living in Ram-
alley. The Mitre, in Fleet-street, Mr. J. H. Bum, in his
THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 59
excellent Account of the Beatrfoy Tokens, states to have been
originally established by a William Paget, of the Mitre in
Cheapside, who removed westward after his house had been
destroyed m the Great Fire of September, 1666. The
house in Fleet-street was lastly Saunders's Auction-room,
No. 39, and was demolished by Messrs. Hoare, to enlarge
the site for their new banking-house, the western portion of
which now occupies the tavern site. The now Mitre, in
Mitrecourt, formerly Joe's, is but a recent assumption of
name.*
In 1780, the Club removed to the Crown and Anchor
Tavern, in the Strand, where they continued to dine for
sixty-eight years, until that tavern was converted, in 1848,
into a Club-house. Then they removed to the Freemasons'
Tavern, in Great Queen Street ; but, in 1857, on the removal
of the Royal Society to Burlington House, Piccadilly, it was
considered advisable to keep the Club meetings at the
Thatched House, in St. James's Street, where they continued
until that tavern was taken down.
During the early times, the docketings of the Club ac-
counts show that the brotherhood retained the title of Royal
Philosophers to the year 1786, when it seems they were only
designated the Royals ; but they have now settled into the
" Royal Society Club." The elections are always an ex-
citing matter of interest, and the fate of candidates is
occasionally severe, for there are various instances of re-
jections on two successive annual ballots, and some have
been black-balled even on a third venture ; some of the
defeated might be esteemed for talent, yet were considered
unclubbable.
Some of the entries in the earliest minute-book are very
curious, and show that the Philosophers did not restrict
themselves to " the fish and pudding dinner." Here is the
• See Walks and Talks about London, p. 246. The Mitre in Fleet
street was also the house frequented by Dr. Johnson.
6o CLUB LIFE "^ LONDON.
bill of fare for sixteen persons, a few years after the Club
was established : " Turkey, boiled, and oysters ; Calves'
head, hashed ; Chine of Mutton ; Apple pye ; 2 dishes of
herrings ; Tongue and udder ; Leg of pork and pease ;
S'loin of beef j Plum pudding; butter and cheese." Black
puddings are stated to have figured for many years at every
dinner of the Club.
The presents made to the Club were very numerous, and
called for special regvilations. Thus, under the date of May
3, 1750, it is recorded: "Resolved nem. con., That any
nobleman or gentleman complimenting this company
annually with venison, not less than a haunch, shall, during
the continuance of such annuity, be deemed an Honorary
Member, and admitted as often as he comes, without paying
the fine, which those Members do who are elected by
ballot." At another Meeting, in the same year, a resolution
was passed, " That any gentleman complimenting this
Society annually with a Turtle shall be considered as an
Honorary Member ;" and that the Treasurer do pay Keeper's
fees and carriage for all venison sent to the Society, and
charge it in his account. Thus, besides gratuities to cooks,
there are numerous chronicled entries of the following
tenour : — " Keeper's fees and carriage of a buck from the
Hon. P. Yorke, 14^-. ; Fees, etc., for Venison and Salmon,
j^i. \^s. ; Do., half a Buck from the Earl of Hardwick,
£,1. 5s. ; Fees and carriage for a Buck from H. Read, Esq.,
;£i. 3 J. 6d. ; Fees for Venison and Game from Mr. Banks,
£1. gs. 6d; . . . August 15, 1751. The Society being
this day entertained with halfe a Bucke by the Most
Hon"" the Marquis of Rockingham, it was agreed, fiem. con.,
to drink his health in claret. Sept. 5th, 1751. — The Com-
pany being entertained with a whole Bucke (halfe of which
was dressed to-day) by Henry Read, Esq., his health was
drunk in claret, as usual ; and Mr. Cole (the landlord) was
desired to dispose of the halfe, and give the Company
Venisons instead of it next Thursday.'' The following week
THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 6r
the largess is again gravely noticed : "The Company being
this day regaled with the other halfe of Mr. Read's buck
(which Mr. Cole had preserved sweet), his health was again
drank in claret."
Turtle has already been mentioned among the presents.
In 1784, the circumnavigator Lord Anson honoured the
Club by presenting the members with a magnificent Turtle,
when the Club drank his Lordship's and other turtle donors'
healths in claret. On one occasion, it is stated that the
usual dining-room could not be occupied on account of a
turtle being dressed which weighed 400 lb. ; and another
minute records that a turtle, intended to be presented to the
Club, died on its way home from the West Indies.
James Watt has left the following record of one of the
Philosophers' turtle feasts, at which he was present : — " When
I was in London in 1785, I was received very kindly by
Mr. Cavendish and Dr. Blagden, and my old friend Smeaton,
who has recovered his health, and seems hearty. I dined at
a turtle feast with them, and the select Club of the Royal
Society ; and never was turtle eaten with greater sobriety
and temperance, or more good fellowship."
The gift of good old English roast-beef also occurs among
the presents, as in the subjoined minute, under the date of
June 27, 1751, when Martin Folkes presided: "William
Hanbury, Esq., having this day entertained the company
with a chine of Beef which was 34 inches in length, and
weighed upwards of 140 pounds, it was agreed, nem. con.,
that two such chines were equal to half a Bucke or a Turtle,
and entitled the Donor to be an Honorary Member of this
Society."
Then we have another record of Mr. Hanbury's mu-
nificence, as well as his conscientious regard for minuteness
in these matters, in this entry : "Mr. Hanbury sent this day
another mighty chine of beef, and, having been a little de-
ficient with regard to annual payments of chines of beef,
added three brace of very large carp by way of interest."
62 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Shortly after, we find Lord Morton contributing " two pigs
of the China breed."
In addition to the venison, game, and other viands, there
was no end of presents of fruits for dessert. In 1752, Mr.
Cole (the landlord) presented the company with a ripe
water-melon from Malaga. In 1753, there is an entry
showing that some tusks, a rare and savoury fish, were sent
by the Earl of Morton ; and Egyptian Cos-lettuces were
supplied by Philip Miller, who, in his Gardener's Dictionary;
describes this as the best and most valuable lettuce known ;
next he presented " four Cantaloupe melons, equal — if not
superior — in flavour to pine-apples." In July, 1763, it is
chronicled that Lord Morton sent two pine-apples, cherries
of two sorts, melons, gooseberries of two sorts, apricots, and
currants of two sorts.
However, this practice of making presents got to be un-
popular with the Fellows at large, who conceived it to be
undignified to receive such gifts; and, in 1779, it was
" resolved that no person in future be admitted into the
Club in consequence of any present he shall make to
it." This singular custom had been in force for thirty
years. The \z.\z%\. formal thanks for " a very fine haunch of
venison" were voted to Lord Darnley on the 17th of June,
1824.
The Club Minutes show the progressive rise in the charges
for dinner. From 1743 to 1756 the cost was is. 6d. a head.
In the latter year it was resolved to give ^s. per head for
dinner and wine, the cominons for absentees to remain at
IS. 6d., as before. In 1775, ^^ price was increased to 4^.
a head, including wine, and 2d. to the waiter; in 1801, to
Sx. a head, exclusive of wine, the increased duties upon
which made it necessary for the members to contribute an
annual sum for the expense of wine, over and above the
charge of the tavern bills.
In 177s, the wine was ordered to be laid in at a price
not exceeding £^s ^ W9^i or ^s- 6^. a bottle j to have a
7 HE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 63
particular seal upon the cork, and to be charged by the
landlord at 2s. 6d. a bottle. The Club always dined on the
Society's meeting-day. Wray, writing of a Club-meeting in
1776, says that, "after a capital dinner of venison, which
was absolutely perfect, we went to another sumptuous
entertainment, at the Society, where five electrical eels, all
alive, from Surinam, were exhibited ; most of the company
received the electrical stroke ; and then we were treated
with the sight of a sucking alligator, very lively."
It has been more than once remarked that a public dinner
of a large party of philosophers and men of science and
letters generally turns out to be rather a dull affair ; perhaps,
through the enibarras of talent at table. Not so, however,
the private social Clubs, the offshoots of Public Societies,
like the Royal Society Club, and others we could mention.
The Royals do not appear to have been at all indifferent to
these post-prandial wit-combats. " Here, my jokes I crack
with high-born Peers," writes a Philosopher, alluding to the
Club dinners ; and Admiral Smyth, in his unpubhshed Rise
and Progress, tells us, that to this day "it unites hilarity, ahd
the macrones verborum of smart repartee, with strictures on
science, literature, the fine arts — and, indeed, every branch
of human knowledge."
The administration of the affairs of the Club was minutely
attended to : when, in 1776, it was considered necessary to
revise " the commons," a committee was appointed for the
purpose, consisting of Messrs. Aubert, Cuthburt, Maskelyne,
Russell, and Solander, who decided that "should the
number of the company exceed the number provided for,
the dinner should be made up with the beefstakes, mutton-
chops, lamb-chops, veal-cutlets, or pork-stakes, instead of
made dishes, or any dearer provisions." And " that two-
pence per head be allowed for the waiter {which seems to
have hem the regtilar gratuity for many years). Then, the
General Committee had to report that the landlord was to
charge for gentlemen's servants, "one shilling each for dinner
64 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
and a pot of porter ;" and " that when toasted cheese was
called for, he was to make a charge for it."
In 1784, the celebrated geologist, Faujas da Saint-Fond
(Barthdlemy), with four other distinguished foreigners,
partook of the hospitality of the Club, of which, in 1797,
M. Faujas pubHshed an account. " He mentions the short
prayer or grace with which Dr. Maskelyne blessed the com-
pany and the food — the solid meats and unseasoned vege-
tables — the quantities of strong beer called porter, drank
out of cylindrical pewter pots d'u7i seul trait — the cheese to
provoke the thirst of drinkers — the hob-a-nobbing of healths —
and the detestable coffee. On the whole, however, this honest
Frenchman seems to have been delighted with the entertain-
ment, or, as he styles it, 'the convivial and unassuming
banquet,'" and M. Faujas had to pay "seven livres four sols"
for his commons. Among the lighter incidents is the record
of M. Aubert having received a present from the King of
Poland, begged to have an opportunity of drinking His
Majesty's health, and permission to order a bottle of
Hermitage, which being granted, the health was drank by
the company present ; and upon one of the Club-slips of
1798, after a dinner of twenty-two, is written, "Seven shil-
lings found under the table."
The dinner-charges appear to have gradually progressed
from \s. 6d. to ioj. per head. In 1858-9 the Club-dinners had
been 25, and the number of diners 309, so that the mean was
equal to 12-36 for each meeting, the visitors amounting to 49;
and it is further computed, that the average wine per head
of late, waste included, is a considerable fraction less than a
pint, imperial standard measure, in the year's consumption.
Among the distinguished guests of the Club are many
celebrities. Here the chivalrous Sir Sidney Smith described
the atrocities of Djezza Pasha j and here that cheerful
baronet — ^Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin — by relating the result
of his going in a jolly-boat to attack a whale, and in narra-
tina: the advantages specified in his proposed patent for
THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 65
fattening fowls, kept " the table in a roar." At this board,
also, our famous circumnavigators and oriental voyagers
met with countenance and fellowship — as Cook, Fumeaujt,
Gierke, King, Bounty Bligh, Vancouver, Guardian Rioil,
Flinders, Broughton, Lestock, Wilson, Huddart, BasS,
Tuckey, Horsburgh, &c. ; while the Polar explorers, from
the Hon. Constantine Phipps, in 1773, down to Sir Leopold
M'Clintock,ini86o, were severally and individually welcomed
as guests. But, besides our sterling sea-worthies, we find in
ranging through the documents that some rather outlandish
visitors were introduced through their means, as Chet Quang
and Wanga Tong, Chinese; Ejutak and Tuklivina, Esqui-
maux; Thayen-danega, the Mohawk chief; while Omai, of
Ulareta, the celebrated and popular savage, of CooKs Voyages,
was so frequently invited, that he is latterly entered on the
Club papers simply as Mr. Omai."
The redoubtable Sir John Hill dined at the Club in com-
pany with Lord Baltimore on the 30th of June, 1748. Hill
was consecutively an apothecary, actor, playwright, novelist,
botanist, journalist, and physician ; and he published upon
trees and flowers, Betty Canning, gems, naval history, religion,
cookery, and what not. Having made an attempt to enter
the Royal Society, and finding the door closed against him, —
perhaps a pert vivacity at the very dinner in question sealed
the rejection, — ^he revenged himself by publishing an impu-
dent quarto volume, vindictively satirizing the Society.
Ned Ward, in his humorous Account of the Clubs of
London, published in 1709, describes "the Virtuoso's Club
as first established by some of the principal members of the
Royal Society, and held every Thursday, at a certain Tavern
in Comhill, where the Vintner that kept it has, according to
his merit, made a fortunate step from his Bar to his Coach.
The chief design of the aforementioned Club was to propa-
gate new whims, advance mechanical exercises, and to pro-
mote useless as well as useful experiments." There is humour
in this, as well as in his ridicule of the Barometer : " by this
F
.66 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
notable invention," he .says, "our gentlemen and ladies of
the middle quality are infallibly told when it's a right season
to put on their best clothes, and when they ought not-to
venture an intrigue in the fields without their cloaks and
unibrellas." His ridicule of turning salt water into fresh,
finding a new star, a,ssigning reasons for a spot in the moon,
and a' "wry step" in the sun's progress, were Ward's points^
laughed at in his time, but afterwards established as facts.
There have been greater mistakes made since Ward's time ;
but this does not cleanse him of filth and foulness.
Ward's record is evidence of the existence of the Royal
Society Club, in 1709, before the date of the Minutes. 'Dr.
Hutton, too, records the designation of Halley's Glub —
undoubted testimony; about 1737, he; Halley, though seized
with paralysis, once a week, within a very short time of his
death, met his friends in town, on Thursdays, the day of the
Royal Society's ^meeting, at ■" Dr. Halley's Club." Upon this
evidence Admiral Smyth establishes the claim that the Royal
Society Club was actually established by a zealous philso-
pher, " who was at once proudly eminent as an astronomer,
a mathematician, a physiologist, a naturahst, a scholar, an
antiquary, a poet, a meteorologist, a geographer, a navi-
gator, -a nsiutical surveyor, and a truly social member- of the
community — in a word, our founder was the illustrious
Halley — the Admirable Crichton of science."
A memorable dinner-party took place on August the nth,
1859, when among the visitors was Mr. Thomas Maclear
(now Sir Thomas), the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape- of
Gooci Hope, who had just anived in England from r; the
southern hemisphere, after an absence of a quarter of a
century. "On this day, were present, so to speak; the
representa,tives of the three great applications by which the
present age is distinguished, namely, of Railuuays, Mr.
. Stephenson ;, of the Electric Telegraph, Mr. Wheatstone:;
and of the Hentiy Fast, Mr. Rowland Hill — an assemblage
never ae;ain to, occur.".. {Adntiral Smyth's History of the Club.)
THE ROYAL SOCIETY CL UB. 6f
Among thef anecdotes which float about, it iS related that
the eccentric Hon. Henry Cavendish, "the' Chib-Croesus,"
attended the metetings with only money enough in his pocket
to pay for his dinner, and that he may hkye dechned taking
tavern-soup, may have picked his teeth with a fork, may
invariably have hung his hat oil the same peg, and may have
always stuck his cane in his right boot ; but' more apocryphal
is the anecdote that one evening Cavendish observed a very
pretty girl iodking out froni an upper window on the opposite
side of the street, watching the philosophers at dihner. She
attracted notice, and one by one they got up and mustered
round the window to admire the fair one. Cavendish, who
thought they Were looking at the moon, bustled up to them '
in his odd way, and when he saw the real object of their
study, turned ■ away with intense disgust, and grunted out
" Pshaw j" the amorous conduct of his brother Philosophers
having horrified the woma.n-hating Cavendish. ' '
Another assertion is that he, Cavendish, left a thumping'
le^cy to Lord Bessboiough, in gratitude for his Lordship's
piqiiant conversation at the Club ; but no such reasoh can be
found in the Will lodged at Doctors' Commons'. The
Testator named therein three' of his' Club-mates, namel}',
Alexander Dalrymple, to receive Spop/., Dr. Hunter, 5000/.,
and Sir Charles Blagd6n (coadjutor in the Water question),
15,000/. After certain other bequests, the will proceeds,—
" The remainder of the funds (nearly 700,005/.) to be
di-vided, one-sixth to the .Earl of Bessborough,' while the
cousin. Lord George Henry Cavendish, had two-sixths,
instead of one;" "it is therefore," says Admiral Smyth,
" patent that the mbney thus passed over from uncle to
nephew, was a mere consequence of relationship, aiid not at
all owing to any flowers or powers of conversation at the
Royal Society Club,"
Admiral Smyth, to whose SiAmiraMQ J»-ids of the History
of the Club we' have to make acknov/ledgement, remarks
that the hospitality of the'- Royal Society has been " of
F a
68 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
material utility to the well-working of the whole machine
which wisdom called up, at a time when knowledge was
quitting scholastic niceties for the truths of experimental
philosophy. This is proved by the number of men of
note — both in ability and station — ^who have there congre-
gated previously to repairing to the evening meeting of the
body at large; and many a qualified person who went
thither a guest has returned a candidate. Besides inviting
our own princes, dukes, marquises, earls, ministers of state,
and nobles of all grades to the table, numerous foreign
grandees, prelates, ambassadors, and persons of distinction —
from the King of Poland and Baron Munchausen, down to
the smart little abbd and a 'gentleman unknown' — ^are
found upon the Club records. Not that the amenities of
the fraternity were confined to these classes, or that, in the
Clubbian sense, they form the most important order ; for
bishops, deans, archdeacons, and clergymen in general —
astronomers — ^mathematicians — sailors — soldiers — engineers
— medical practitioners — poets — artists — travellers — ^musi-
cians — opticians — men of repute in every acquirement,
were, and ever will be, welcome guests. In a word,
t:he names and callings of the visitors offer a type of the
philosophical discordia concors ; and among those guests
possessed of that knowledge without which genius is almost
useless, we find in goodly array such choice names as
Benjamin Franklin, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gibbon, Costard,
Bryant, Dalton, Watt, Bolton, Tennant, Wedgwood, Abys-
sinian Bruce, Attwood, Boswell, Brinkley, Rigaud, Brydone,
Ivory, Jenner, John Hunter, Brunei, Lysons, Weston,
Cramer, Kippis, Westmacott, Corbould, Sir Thomas Law-
rence, Turner, De La Beche, et hoc genus omne."
The President of the Royal Society is elected President of
the Club. There were always more candidates for admission
than vacancies, a circumstance which had some influence in
leading to the formation of a new Club, in 1847, composed
of eminent Fellows of the Society. The name of this new
THE COCOA-TREE CLUB. 69
Association is " the Philosophical Club," and its object is
" to promote, as much as possible, the scientific objects of
the Royal Society, to facilitate intercourse between those
Fellows who are actively engaged in cultivating the various
branches of Natural Science, and who have contributed to
its progress; to increase the attendance at the Evening
Meetings, and to encourage the contribution and the dis-
cussion of papers." Nor are the dinners forgotten; the
price of each not to exceed ten shillings.
The statistical portion of the Annual Statement of i86o,f
shows that the number of dinners for the past year amounted
to 25, at which the attendance was 312 persons, 62 o
whom were visitors, the average being = 1 2 -48 each time :
and the Treasurer called attention to the fact that out of
the Club funds in the last twelvemonth, they had paid not
less than 9/. (>s. for soda and seltzer water ; 8/. 2 j. i>d. for
cards of invitation and postage; and 25/. for visitors, that
is, 8j. o|^. per head.
The Cocoa-Tree Club.
This noted Club was the Tory Chocolate-house of Queen
Anne's reign ; the Whig Coffee-house was the St. James's,
lower down, in the same street, St. James's. The party
distinction is thus defined : — " A Whig will no more go to
the Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, than a Tory will be seen at the
■coffee-house of St. James's."
The Cocoa-tree Chocolate-house was converted into a
Club, probably before 1746, when the house was the head-
quarters of the Jacobite party in Parliament. It is thus
referred to in the above year by Horace Walpole, in a
letter to George Montagu :— " The Duke has given Brigadier
Mordaunt the Pretender's coach, on condition he rode up
to London in it. ' That I will, sir,' said he, ' and drive till
it stops of its own accord at the Cocoa-tree.' "
■ Gibbon was a member of this Club, and has left this
70 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
entry in his journal of 1762 : — ^^"Nov. 24. I dined at the
Cocoa Tree with* * *, who, under a great appearance of
oddity, conceals more real humour, good sense, and even
knowledge, than half those who laugh at him.: We went
thence to the play {The Spanish Friar) ; and when it was
. over, retired to the Cocoa-tree. That respectable body, of
which I have the honour of being a member, affords every
evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps,
of the first men in the kingdom in point of fashion and
fortune supping at little tables covered with a nalpkin, in the
middle of a coffee-room, upon a bit of cold meat, or a
sandwich, and drinking a glass of punch. At present we
are full of King's counsellors and lords of the bedchamber ;
'v\ho, having jumped into the ministry, make a very singular
medley of their old principles and language with their
modern ones." At this time, bribery was in full swing : it is
alleged that the lowest bribe for a vote upon the Peace of
Fontainebleau, was a bank-note of 200/. ; and that the
Secretary of the Treasury afterwards acknowledged 25,000/.
to have been thus expended in a single morning. And in
1765, on the debate in the Commons on the Regency Bill,
we read in the Chatham Correspondence : " The Cocoa-tree
have thus capacitated Her Royal Highness (the Princess of
Wales) to be Regent : it is well they have not given- us
a King, if they have not ; for many think, Lord Bute is
King."
Although the Cocoa-tree, in its conversion from , a
Chocolate-house to a Club, may have bettered its reputation
in some respects, high play, if not foul play, was known
there twenty years later. Walpole, writing to Mann, Feb. 6,
1 780, says : ' Within this week there has been a cast at
hazard at the Cocoa-tree, (in St. James's Street,) the differ-
ence of which amounted to one hundred and fourscore
thousand pounds. Mr. O'Birne, an Irish gamester, had won
one hundred thousand pounds of a young Mr. Harvey of
Chigwell, just started into an estate by his elder,, brother's
ALMACK'S ClUB. fi
dfeath. O'Bliliesiid, "You can never pay me." "I can,"
said the youth': "my estate will 'sell for the debt." '" No,"
said O. : " I will win ten thousand— you shall throw foi' the
odd ninety."^ They did, and Harvey won."
The C&coa-iree was one of the^ Clubs to wHich' Lord
Byron belonged.
Almack's Club.
Almack's, the original Brookes's, on the south side of the
Whig Club-house, was established in Pall Mall, on the site
of the British Institution, in 1764, by twenty-Seven notilem^n
and ge'ntlehifen, including the Duke of Rdxbilrghe, the Duke
of Portland, the Earl of Strathmore, Mr. Crewe (afterwards
Lord Crewe), and Mr. C. J. Fox.
Mr. Cunningham was perniitted to inspect the original
Rules of the Cliib, which show its nature ; here are "a fevV. "
"21. No gaming in the eating-room, except tossing up
for reckonings, on penalty of paying the whole bill of the
members present.
" 22. Dinner shall be served up exactly at half-past four
o'dock, and the bill shall be brought in at s'even.
"26. Almack shall sell no wines in bottles that the Club
approves of, out of the house. . i-
" 30. Any member of this Society that shall become a
candidate for any other Club, (Old White's excepted,) shall
be ipso facto excluded, and his name struck out of the
book.
"40. That every person playing at the new guinea table
do keep fifty guineas before him.
"41. That every person playing at the twenty guinea table
do not keep: less than twenty guineas before him."
That the play ran high may be inferred from a note against
the name of Mr. Thynne, in the Club-books: " Mr. Thynne
having won only 1 2,000 guineas during the last two months,
retired in disgust, March 2ist, 1772."
Some of its members were Maccaronis, the "curled
72 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
darlings " of the day : they were so called from their affecta-
tion of foreign tastes and fashions, and were celebrated for
their long curls and eye-glasses. Much of the deep play
was removed here. "The gaming at Almack's," writes
Walpole to Mann, February 2, 1770, "which has taken the
fas of White's, is worthy the decline of our empire, or com-
monwealth, which you please. The young men of the age
lose ten, fifteen, twenty thousand pounds in an evening
there. Lord Stavordale, not one-and-twenty, lost 11,000/.
there last Tuesday, but recovered it by one great hand at
hazard. He swore a great oath, ' Now, if I had been play-
ing deep, I might have won millions.' His cousin, Charles
Fox, shines equally there, and in the House of Commons.
He was twenty-one yesterday se'nnight, and is already one
of our best speakers. Yesterday he was made a Lprd of
the Admiralty." Gibbon, the historian, was also a member,
and he dates several letters from here. On June 24, 1776,
he writes : " Town grows empty, and this house, where I
have passed many agreeable hours, is the only place which
still invites the flower of the English youth. The style of
living, though somewhat expensive, is exceedingly pleasant ;
and, notwithstanding the rage of play, I have found more
entertainment and rational society than in any other club to
which I belong."
The play was certainly high — only for rouleaus of 50/.
each, and generally there was 10,000/. in specie on the table.
The gamesters began by pulling off their embroidered
clothes, and put on frieze greatcoats, or turned their
coats inside outwards for luck. They put on pieces of
leather (such as are worn by footmen when they clean the
knives) to save their laced rufiSes ; and to guard their eyes
from the light, and to prevent tumbling their hair, wore high-
crowned straw hats with broad brims, and adorned with
flowers and ribbons ; masks to conceal their emotions when
they played at quinz. Each gamester had a small neat
ALMA CK'S ASSEMBL Y ROOMS. 73
Stand by him, to hold his tea ; or a wooden bowl with an
edge of ormolu, to hold the rouleaus.
Almack's was subsequently Goosetree's. In the year
1780, Pitt was then an habitual frequenter, and here his
personal adherents mustered strongly. The members, we
are told in the Life of Wilberforce, were about twenty-five in
number, and included Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden),
Lords Euston, Chatham, Graham, Duncannon, Althorp,
Apsley, G. Cavendish, and Lennox; Messrs. Eliot, Sir
Andrew St. John, Bridgeman (afterwards Lord Bradford),
Morris Robinson (afterwards Lord Rokeby), R. Smith
(afterwards Lord Carrington), W. Grenville (afterwards Lord
Grenville),_ Pepper Arden (afterwards Lord Alvanley), Mr.
Edwards, Mr. Marsham, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr.
Bankes, Mr. Thomas Steele, General Smith, Mr. Windham.
In the gambling at Goosetree's, Pitt played with charac-
teristic and intense eagerness. When Wilberforce came up
to London in 1780, after his return to Parliament, his great
success coloured his entry into public life, and he was at
once elected a member of the leading clubs — Miles's and
Evans's, Brookes's and Boodle's, White's and Goosetree's.
The latter was Wilberforce's usual resort, where his friend-
ship with Pitt, whom he had slightly known at Cambridge,
greatly increased : he once lost 100/. at the faro-table, and
on another night kept the bank, by which he won 600/. ;
but he soon became weaned from play.
Almack's Assembly Rooms.
In the year following the opening of Almack's Club in
Pall Mall, Almack had built for him by Robert Mylne, the
suite of Assembly Rooms, in King-street, St. James's,
which was named after him, " Almack's," and was occasion-
ally called "Willis's Room's," after the next proprietor.
Almack likewise kept the Thatched House Tavern, in St.
James's-street
74 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
■ ^Alifiack'S was Op'efied Feb.- 20, 1765, and was advertised to
have been built with hot bricks and boiling water : the ceilings
were dripping with wet ; but the Duke of Cumberland, the
Hero of CuUoden, was there. Gilly Williams, a few days after
the opening, in abetter to George Selwyn, >vrites : " There is
now opened at Almack's, in three very elegant new-built
rooms, a ten-guinea subscription, for which you have a ball
and supper once a week, for twelve weeks. You may imagine
by the sum the company is chosen ; though, refined as it is, it
will be scarce able to put out old Soho (Mrs. Comeleys) out of
countenance! The men's tickets are not transferable, so, if
the ladies do not like us, they have no oppoirtUhity of changing
us, but must see the same persons for ever." ..." Our
female Almack's flourishes beyond description. Almack's
Scotch face, in a bag-wig, waiting at supper, would divert
you, as would his lady, in a sack, making tea and curtseying
to the duchesses."
Five years later, in 1770, Walpole writes to Montagu:
■" There is a new Institution that begins to make, and if it
proceeds, will make a considerable noise. It is a Club of
both sexes, to be erected at Almack's, on the model of that
of the men of White's. Mrs. Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs.
Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham, and Miss Lloyd,
are the foundresses. I am ashamed to say I am of so
young and fashionable society ; but as they are people I live
with, I choose to be idle rather than morose. I can go to
a young supper without forgetting how much sand is run out
of the hour-glass."
Mrs. Boscawen tells Mrs. Delany of this Club of lords and
ladies who first met at a tavern, but subsequently, to satisfy
Lady Pembroke's scruples, in a room at Almack's. " The
ladies nominate and choose the gentlemen and-wV^ versA, so
that no lady can exclude a lady, or gentleman a gentletnan."
Ladies Rochford, Harrington, and Holderness were black-i
balled, as was the Duchess of Bedford, who was subsequently
admitted ! Lord March and Brook Boothby were black.
ALMA CK 'S ASSEMBL Y ROOMS. 73
balled- by the ladies, ^ to their great astonishment. There
was a dinner*'- then supper at eleven, and, says Mrs.
Boscawen, "play will be deep and constant, probably."
The frenzy for play was then at its height. "Nothing
within my memory comes up to it 1" exclaims Mrs. Delany,
who attributes it to the prevailing "avarice and extraga-
^'ance." Some men made profit out of it, like Mr. Thyrine.
"who has won this year so considerably that he has paid off
all his debts, bought a house and furnished it, disposed of
his horses, hounds, etc., and struck his name out of all
expensive subscriptions. But what a horrid r^ection'w. must
be to an honest mind to build his fortune on the ruin of
others."
Almack's large ball-room is about one hundred feet in
length, by forty feet in width ; it is chastely decorated with
gilt columns and pilasters, classic medallions, mirrors, etc.,
and is lit with gas, in cut-glass lustres. The largest number
of persons ever present in this room atone ball was 1700.
The rooms are let for public meetings, dramatic readings,
concerts, balls, and occasionally for dinners. Here Mrs.
Billington, Mr. Braham, and Signer Naldi, gave concerts,
from 1808 to 18 10, in rivalry with Madame Catalan!, at
Hanover-square Rooms ; and here Mr. Charles Kemble
gave, in 1844, his Readings from Shakspeare.
The Balls at Almack's are managed by a Committee of
Ladies of high rank, and the only mode of admission is by
vouchers or personal introduction.
Almack's has declined of late years ; " a clear proof that
the palmy days of exclusiveness are gone by in England;
and though it is obviously impossible to prevent any given
number of persons from congregating and re-establishing
an oligarchy, we are quite sure that the attempt would be
ineffectual, and that the sense of their importance would
extend little beyond the set."* In 1831 was published
* Quart ei'ly Review ^ 1840;
■?6 . CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
AlmacMs, a novel, in which the leaders of fashion were
sketched with much freedom, and identified in A Key to
AlmacKs, by Benjamin Disraeli.
Brookes's Club.
We have just narrated the establishment of this Club —
how it was originally a gaming club, and was farmed at first
by Almack. It was subsequently taken by Brookes, a wine-
merchant and money-lender, according to Selwyn ; and who
is described by Tickell, in a copy of verses addressed to
Sheridan, when Charles James Fox was to give a supper at
his own lodgings, then near the Club : —
Derby shall send, if not his plate, his cooks,
And know, I've brought the best champagne from Brookes,
From liberal Brookes, whose speculative skill
Is hasty credit and a distant bill ;
Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade,
Exults to trust, and blushes to be paid.
From Pall Mall Brookes's Club removed to No. 60, on
the west side of St. James's-street, where a handsome house
was built at Brookes's expense, from the designs of Henry
Holland, the architect ; it was opened in October, 1778.
The concern did not prosper ; for James Hare writes to
George Selwyn, May 18, 1779, "we are all beggars at
Brookes's, and he threatens to leave the house, as it yields
him no profit." Mr. Cunningham tells us that Brookes
retired from the Club soon after it was built, and died poor
about the year 1782.
Lord Crewe, one of the founders of the Club in Pall Mall,
died in 1829, after sixty-five years' membership of Brookes's.
Among its celebrities were Burke and Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Garrick and Hume, Horace Walpole, Gibbon, and Sheridan
and Wilberforce. Lord March, afterwards Duke of Queens-
berry, was one of its notorieties — " the old Q., whom many
now living can remember, with his fixed eye and cadaverous
BROOKES'S CLUB. >ji
fe.ce, watching the flow of the human tide past his bow-
window in Pall M.a\\."—Mitional Review, 1857. [This is
hardly correct as to locality, smce the Club left Pall Mall in
1778, and a reminiscent must be more than 80 years of age.]
Among Selwyn's correspondents are Gilly Williams, Hare,
Fitzpatrick, the Townshends, Burgoyne, Storer, and Lord
Carhsle. R. Tickell, in "Lines from the Hon. Charles
Fox to the Hon. John Townshend cruising," thus describes
the welcome that awaits Townshend, and the gay life of the
Club :—
Soon as to Brookes's thence thy footsteps bend,
What gratulations thy approach attend !
See Gibbon tap his box ; auspicious sign,
That classic compliment and evil combine.
See Beauclerk's cheek a tinge of red surprise,
And friendship gives what cruel health denies.
Important Townshend ! what can thee witlistand ?
The ling'ring blackball lags in Boothby's hand.
E'en Draper checks the sentimental sigh ;
And Smith, without an oath suspends the die.
Mr. Wilberforce has thus recorded his first appearance
at Brookes's : " Hardly knowing any one, I joined, from
mere shyness, in play at the faro-tables, where George
Selwyn kept bank. A friend, who knew my inexperience,
and regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called
to me, 'What, Wilberforce, is that you?' Selwyn quite
resented the interference, and, turning to him, said, in his most
expressive tone, ' Oh, Sir, don't interrupt Mr. Wilberforce ;
he could not be better employed !' "
The Prince of Wales, one day at Brookes's, expatiating
on that beautiful but far-fetched idea of Dr. Darwin's, that
the reason of the bosom of a beautiful woman being the
object of such exquisite delight for a man to look upon,
arises from the first pleasurable sensations of warmth,
sustenance, and repose, which he derives therefrom in his
infancy ; Sheridan replied, " Truly hath it been said, that
there is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
j;S CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
All children who are brought up by hand must derive their
pleasurable sensations from a very different source ; yet I
believe no one ever heard of any such, when arrived at
manhood, evincing any very rapturous Or amatory emotions
at the sight of a wooden spoon." This clever exposure of an
ingenious absurditity shows the folly of taking for granted
every opinion w^hich may be broached under the sanction of
a popular name.
The conversation at Brookes's, one ' day, turning on Lord
Henry Petty's projected tax upon iron, one member said,
that as there was so much opposition to it, it would be
better to raise the proposed sum upon coals. " Hold ! my
dear fellow," said Sheridan, " that would be out of the frying
pan into the fire, with a vengeance."
Mr. Whitbread, one evening at Brookes's, talked loudly
and largely against the Ministers for laying what was called
the war tax upon malt : every one present concurred with
him in opinion, but Sheridan could not resist the gratifica-
tion of a hit at the brewer himself. He wrote with his
pencil upon the back of a letter the following lines, which he
handed to Mr. Whitbread, across the table : —
They've raised the price of table drink ;
What is the reason, do you think ?
The tax on malt's the cause I hear —
But what has malt to do with beer ?"
Looking through a Number of the Quarterly Review, one
day, at Brookes's, soon after its first appearance, Sheridan
said, in reply to a gentleman who observed that the editor,
Mr. Gifford, had boasted of the power of conferring and
distributing literary reputation : " Very likely ; and in the
present instance I think he has done it so profusely as to
have left none for himself."
Sir Philip Francis was the convivial companion of Fox,
and during the short administration of that statesman was
made a Knight of the Bath. One evening, Roger Wilbfaham
BROOKES' S CLUB. 79
came up to a whist-table at Brookes's, where Sk PhiUp, who
for the first time wore the ribbon of the Order, was engaged
in a rubber, and thus accosted him. Laying hold of the
ribbon and examining it for some time, he said : "So, this
is the way they have rewarded you at last : they have ' given
you a little bit of red ribbpn for your services. Sir Philip,
have they ? A pretty bit of red ribbon to hang about your
neckj and that satisfies you, does it? Now, I wonder
what I shall have. — ^What do you think they will give me
Sir Philip ?"
The newly-made Knight, who had twenty-five guineas
depending on the rubber, and who was not very well
pleased at the interruption, suddenly turned round, and
looking at him fiercely, exclaimed, " A halter, and be d^ — d
to you ! "
• George III., invariably evinced a strong aversion to
Fox, the secret of which it is easy to understand. His
son, the Prince of Wales, threw himself into the arms of
Fox, and this in the most undisguised manner. Fox
lodged in St. James's-street, and as soon as he rose, which
was very late, had a levee of his followers, and of the
members of the gaming club, at Brookes's, all his disci-
ples. His bristly black person, and shagged breast quite
open, and rarely purified by any ablutions, was wrapped
in a foul linen night-gown, and his bushy hair dishevelled.
In these cynic weeds, and with epicurean good-humour
did he dictate his politics, and in this school did the heir of
the Crown attend his lessons, and imbibe them.
.. Fox's. , love pf play was desperate. A few evenings
before he moved the repeal of the Marriage Act; in Feb-
ruary, 1772, he had been at Brompton on two errands:
one -to consult 'Justice Fielding on the penal laws; the
other to.borrow ten thousand pounds, which he brought
to town at the hazard of being robbed. Fox played admi-
rably . both, at whist and ■ piquet ; with such skill, 'indeed,
that by the general admission of Brookes's Club, he
So CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
might have made four thousand pounds a-year, as they
calculated, at those games, if he could have confined
himself to them. But his misfortune arose from playing
games at chance, particularly at Faro. After eating and
drinking plentifully, he sat down to the Faro table, and
inevitably rose a loser. Once, indeed, and once only, he
won about eight thousand pounds in the course of a
single evening. Part of the money he paid away to his cre-
ditors, and the remainder he lost almost immediately.
Before he attained his thirtieth year, he had completely
dissipated everything that he could either command, or
could procure by the most ruinous expedients. He had
even undergone, at times, many of the severest privations
annexed to the vicissitudes that mark a gamester's progress ;
frequently wanting money to defray the common daily
wants of the most pressing nature. Topham Beauclerc,
who lived much in Fox's society, affirmed, that no man
could form an idea of the extremities to which he had been
driven in order to raise money, after losing his last guinea
at the Faro table. He was reduced for successive days
to such distress, as to borrow money from the waiters of
Brookes's. The very chairmen, whom he was unable to
pay, used to dun him for their arrears. In 1781, he
might be considered as an extinct volcano, for the pecu-
niary aliment that had fed the flame was long consumed.
Yet he then occupied a house or lodgings in St. James's-
street close to Brookes's, where he passed almost every
hour which was not devoted to the House of Commons.
Brookes's was then the rallying point or rendezvous of the
Opposition ; where, whUe faro, whist, and supper prolonged
the night, the principal members of the Minority in both
Houses met, in order to compare their information, or to
concert and mature their parliamentary measures. Great
sums were then borrowed of Jews at exorbitant premiums.
Fox called his outward room, where the Jews waited till he
rose, the yeruscUem Chamber. His brother Stephen was
White's Club, St. James's Street. (Tory.)
{The Modern Building by Wyatt, 1851.)
Brookes' (Whig) and White's (Tory) Clubs, 1796.
{Tlie Ariisfs perspective is slightly faulty.)
BROOKESS CLUB. 8i
enormously fat] George Selwyn said he was in the right to
deal with Shylocks, as he could give them pounds of flesh.
When Fox lodged with his friend Fitzpatrick, at Mackie's,
some one remarked that two such inmates would be the
ruin of Mackie, the oilman ; " No," said George Selwyn ;
"so far from ruining him, they will make poor Mackie's
fortune J for he will have the credit of having the finest
pickles in London."
The ruling passion of Fox was partly owing to the lax
training of his father, who, by his lavish allowances, fos-
tered his propensity for play. According to Chesterfield,
the first Lord Holland " had no fixed principles in religion
or morality," and he censures him to his son for being " too
unwary in ridiculing and exposing them." He gave full
swing to Charles in his youth : " let nothing be d9ne," said
his Lordship, " to break his spirit ; the world will do that for
him." {Selwyn.) At his death, in 1774, he left him
154,000/. to pay his debts ; it was all bespoke, and Fox
soon became as deeply pledged as before.
Walpole, in 1 78 1, walking up St. James's-street, saw a cart
and porters at Fox's door ; with copper and an old chest
of drawers, loading. His success at faro had awakened
a host of creditors ; but, unless his bank had swelled
to the size of the Bank of England, it could not have
yielded a sou apiece for each. Epsom, too, had been
unpropitious ; and one creditor had actually seized and
caried oS Fox's goods, which did not seem worth removing.
Yet shortly after this, whom should Walpole find saun-
tering by his own door but Fox, who came up and talked
to him at the coach-window, on the Marriage Bill, with
as much sang froid as if he knew nothing of what had
happened.
It was at the sale of Fox's library in this year that
Walpole made the following singular note : — "lySt, June
20. Sold by auction, the library of Charles Fox, which
had been taken in execution. Amongst the books was
82 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
Mr. Gibbon's first volume of 'Roman History,' which
appeared, by the title-page, to have been given by the
author to .Mr.,. Fox, who had written in it the following
anecdote: — 'The author at Brookes's said there was no
salvation for the country till six heads of the principal
persons in the administration were laid on the table ;
eleven, days later, the same gentleman accepted the place
of Lord of Trade under those very ministers, and ha,s
acted with them ever since!' Such was the avidity. of
bidders for the smallest production of so wonderful a
genius, that by the, addition of this httle record, the book
sold for three guineas."
Lord Tankerville assured Mr. Rogers that Fox once
played cards with Fitzpatrick at Brookes's from ten o'clock
at night till near six o'clock the next afternoon, a waiter
standing by to tell them " whose deal it was," they being
too sleepy to know. Fox once -yvon about eight thousand
pounds ; and one of his bond-creditors, who soon heard of
his good luck, presented himself, and asked for payment,
" Impossible, Sir," replied Fox ; " I must first discharge
my debts of honour." The bond-creditor remonstrated.
" Well, Sir, give me your bond." It was delivered to Fox,
who tore it in pieces, and threw them into the fire. " ,Now,
Sir," said Fox, "my debt to you is a debt of honour;" and
immediately paid him.
Amidst the , wildest excesses of youth, even wWle the
perpetual victim of his passion for play, Fox eagerly culti-
vated at intervals his taste for letters, especially the Greek
and Roman historians and poets ; and he found resources
in their works, under the most severe depressions occa-
sioned by ill-success at the gaming-table. One morning,
after Fox had passed the whole night in company with
Topham Beauclerc at faro, the two friends were about to
separate. Fox had, lost throughout the night, and was in a
frame of mind approaching desperation. Beauclerc's an-
xiety for the consequences which might ensue led him to be
BROOICES'S CLUB. S3
early at Fox's lodgings ; and on arriving, lie inquired, not
without apprehension, whether he had risen. The servant
replied that Mr. Fox was in the dr'awihg-room, When Beau-
clerc walked upstairs, and cautiously opened the door,
expecting to behold a frantic gamester stretched on the
floor, bewailing his losses, or -plunged in moody despair ;
but he was astonished to find him reading a Greek Hero-
dotus. " What would you have me do ? " said Fox, "I have
lost my last shilling," Upon other occasions, after staking
and losing all that he could raise at faro, infetead of ex-
claiming against fortune, or manifesting the agitation
natural under such circumstances, he would lay his head on
the table, and retain his place, but exhausted by mental
and bodily fatigue, almost immediately fall into a profound
sleep! • . . ,.
One night, at Brookes's, Fox made sonle rettiark on
Government powder, in allusion to something that had
happened. Adams considered it a reflection, and sent Fox
a challenge. FOx wdnt out, and took his station, giving a
full front. Fitzgerald said, "You iftust stand sideways."
Fox said, "Why I am as- thick one way as the nther." —
" Fire," was given : Adams fired, Fox did not, and when
they said he must, he said, " I'll be d-^d if I do. I have
-no qiiarrel." They then advanced to shake hands'. Fox
said, " Adams, you'd have killed ■ me if it had not been
Government powder." The ball hit him in the groin.
- Another celebrated character; who frequented Brookes's
in the days of Selwyn, was Dunning, afi:erwards Lord Ash-
burton ; and many keen encounters passed between themi.
Dunning was a short, thick man, with a turn- up nose, a
■constant shake of the head, and latterly a distressing hectic
cough — but a wit of the first water. Though he died at the
comparatively' early age of fifty-two,- he amassed 'a fortune of
'150,000/. during twenty-five years' practice at the bar; and
lived -notwithstanding, so liberally, that his mother, an
attorney's widow, some of the wags at Brookes's wickedly
G a
84 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
recorded, left him in dudgeon on the score of his extrava-
gance, as humorously sketched at a dinner at the lawyer's
country-house near Fulham, when the following conversation
was represented to have occurred : —
" John," said the old lady to her son, after dinner, during
which she had been astounded by the profusion of the plate
and viands, — " John, I shall not stop another day to witness
such shameful extravagance."
" But, my dear mother," interrupted Dunning, " you ought
to consider that I can afford it : my income, you know "
"No income," said the old lady impatiently, "can stand
such shameful prodigality. The sum which your cook told
me that very iurbot cost, ought to have supported any
reasonable family for a week."
" Pooh, pooh ! my dear mother," replied the dutiful son,
" you would not have me appear shabby. Besides, what is
a turbot ?"
" Pooh, pooh ! what is a turbot ?" echoed the irritated
dame : " don't pooh me, John : I tell you such goings-on
can come to no good, and you'll see the end of it before
long. However, it sha'n't be said your mother encouraged
such sinful waste, for I'll set off in the coach to Devonshire
to-morrow morning."
" And notwithstanding," said Sheridan, " all John's rhe-
torical efforts to detain her, the old lady kept her word."
Sheridan's election as a member of Brookes's took place
under conflicting circumstances. His success at Stafford
met with fewer obstacles than he had to encounter in St.
James's-street, where Selwyn's political aversions and
personal jealousy were very formidable, as were those of
the Earl of Bessborough, and they and other members of
the Club had determined to exclude Sheridan. Conscious
that every exertion would be made to ensure his success,
they agreed not to absent themselves during the time allowed
by the regulations of the Club for ballots ; and as one black
ball sufficed to extinguish the hopes of a candidate, they
BROOKES'S CLUB. 8s
repeatedly prevented his election. In order to remove so
serious an impediment, Sheridan had recourse to artifice.
On the evening when it was resolved to put him up, he
found his two inveterate enemies posted as usual. A chair-
man was then sent with a note, written in the name of her
father-in-law. Lord Bessborough, acquainting him that a fire
had broken out in his house in Cavendish Square, and
entreating him immediately to return home. Unsuspicious
of any trick, as his son and daughter-in-law lived under his
roof. Lord Bessborough unhesitatingly quitted the room,
and got into a sedan-chair. Selwyn, who resided not far
from Brookes's in Cleveland-row, received, nearly at the
same time, a verbal message to request his presence, in
consequence of Miss Fagniani, (whom he had adopted as
his daughter,) being suddenly seized with alarming indis-
position. This summons he obeyed ; and no sooner was
the room cleared, than Sheridan being proposed a member,
a ballot took place, when he was immediately chosen. Lord
Bessborough and Selwyn returned without delay, on dis-
covering the imposition that had been practised on their
credulity, but they were too late to prevent its effects.
Such is the story told by Selwyn, in his Memoirs; but the
following account is more generally accredited. The Prince
of Wales joined Brookes's Club, to have more frequent inter-
course with Mr. Fox, one of its earliest members, and who,
on his first acquaintance with Sheridan, became anxious for
his admission to the Club. Sheridan was three times pro-
posed, but as often had the back ball in the ballot, which
disqualified him. At length, the hostile ball was traced to
George Selwyn, who objected, because his (Sheridan's) father
had been upon the stage. Sheridan was apprised of this,
and desired that his name might be put up again, and that
the further conduct of the matter might be left to himself.
Accordingly, on the evening when he was to be balloted for,
Sheridan arrived at Brookes's arm-in-arm with the Prince of
Wales, just ten minutes before the balloting began. They
85 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
were shown into the candidates' waiting-room, when one of
the dub-waiters was ordered to tell Mr. Selwyn that the
Prince desired to speak with him immediately. Selwyn
obeyed the summons, and Sheridan, to whom this version of
the affair states, Sheridan had no personal dislike, enter-
tained him for half-an-hour with some political story, which
interested him very much, but had no foundation in truth.
During Selwyn's absence, the ballO;ting went on, and Sheridan
was chosen ; and the result was announced to himself and
the Prince by the waiter, with the preconcerted signal of
stroking his chin with his hand. Sheridan immediately rose
from his seat, and apologizing for a few minutes' absence,
told Selwyn that " the Prince would finish the narrative, the
catastrophe of which he would find very remarkable."
.Sheridan now went upstairs, was introduced to the Club,
and was soon in all his glory. . The Prince, in the mean-
time, had not the least idea of being left to conclude a
story, the thread of which (if it had a thread) he had
entirely forgotten. Still, by means of Selwyn's occasional
assistance, the Prince got on pretty well for a few minutes
when a question from the listener as to the flat contra-
diction of a part of His Royal Highness' story to that
of Sheridan, completely posed the narrator, andjie stuck
fast. After much floundering, the Prince burst into a loud
laugh, saying, " D — n the fellow, to leave me to finish the
infernal story, of which I know as much as a child unborn 1
But, never mind,. Selwyn; as Sheridan does not seem
inclined to come back, let me go upstairs, and I dare say
Fox or some of them will be able to tell you all about it."
They adjourned to the club-room, and Selwyn now detected
the manoeuvre. Sheridan then rose, made a low bow, and
apologized to Selwyn, through his dropping into such good
company, adding, "They have just been making me a
member, without even one Mack ball, and here I am."
" The devil they have !" exclaimed Selwyn. — " Facts speak
for themselves," said Sheridan j "and I thank you for your
" FIGHTING FITZGERALD " A T BROOKES' S. 87
friendly suffrage 3 and now, if you will sit down by us, I
will finish my story." — " Your story ! it is all a lie from
beginning to end," exclaimed Selwyn, amidst loud laughter
from all parts of the room.
Among the members who indulged in high play was
Alderman Combe, who is said to have made as much money
in this way as he did by brewing. One evening, whilst he
filled the office of Lord Mayor, he was busy at a full hazard
table at Brookes's, where the wit and the dice-box circulated
together with great glee, and where Beau Brammell was one
of the party. "Come, Mashtub," said Brummell, who was
the caster, "what do you set?' — "Twenty-five guineas,"
answered the Alderman. — " Well, then," returned the Beau,
" have at the mare's pony " (25 guineas). He continued to
throw until he drove home the brewer's twelve ponies,
running ; and then, getting up, and making him a low bow,
whilst pocketing the cash, he said, "Thank you, alderman ;
for the future, I shall never drink any porter but yours." —
" I wish, Sir," repUed the brewer, " that every other black-
guard in London would tell me the same."
" Fighting Fitzgerald " at Brookes's.
This notorious person, George Robert Fitzgerald, though
nearly related to one of the first families in Ireland (Leinster),
was executed in 1786, for a murder which he had coolly
premeditated, and had perpetrated in a most cruel and
cowardly manner.
His duelling propensities had kept him out of all the first
Clubs in London. He once applied to Admiral Keith
Stewart to propose him as a candidate for Brookes's ; when the
Admiral, knowing that he must either fight or comply with his
request, chose the latter. Accordingly, on the night when
the ballot was to take place (which was only a mere form in
this case, for even Keith Stewart had resolved to black ball
him), the duellist accompanied the Admiral to St. James's-
88 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
street, and waited in the room below, while the ballot was
taken. This was soon done ; for, without hesitation, each
member threw in a black ball; and when the scrutiny came,
the company were not a little amazed to find not even mie
white ball among the number. However, the rejection
being carried mm. con., the question was, which of the
members had the hardihood to announce the result to the
expectant candidate. No one would undertake the office,
for the announcement was thought sure to produce a
challenge ; and a duel with Fitzgerald had, in most cases,
been fatal to his opponent. The general opinion was that
the proposer. Admiral Stewart, should convey the intelli-
gence. " No, gentlemen," said he, " I proposed the fellow
because I knew you would not admit him ; but, by Jove,
I have no inclination to risk my life against that of a
madman."
" But, Admiral," replied the Duke of Devonshire,* " there
being no white ball in the box, he must know that you have
black-balled him as well as the rest, and he is sure to call
you out at all events."
This posed the Admiral, who, after some hesitation,
proposed that the waiter should tell Fitzgerald that there was
me black ball, and that his name must be put up again if he
wished it. All concurred in the propriety of this plan, and
the waiter was despatched on the mission. In the mean-
time, Fitzgerald had frequently rung the bell to inquire " the
state of the poll," and had sent each waiter to ascertain, but
neither durst return, when Mr. Brookes took the message
from the waiter who was descending the staircase, and
boldly entered the room, with a coffee equipage in his hand.
" Did you call for coffee. Sir ?" said Mr. Brookes, smartly.
" D — n your coffee, Sir ! and you too," answered Mr.
Fitzgerald, in a voice which made the host's blood run cold.
* This, was the bon-vivant Duke who had got ready for him every
night, for supper, at Brookes's, a broiled blade-bone of mutton.
"FIGHTm G FITZGERALD "AT BROOKES S. 89
" I want to know, Sir, and that without one moment's delay,
Sir, if I am chose yet ?"
" Oh, Sir !" replied Mr. Brookes, attempting to smile
away the appearance of fear, " I beg your pardon, Sir, "but I
was just coming to announce to you. Sir, with Admiral
Stewart's compliments, Sir, that unfortunately there was one
black ball in the box. Sir ; and consequently, by the rules of
the Club, Sir, no candidate can be admitted without a new
election, Sir; — which cannot take place, by the standing
regulations of the Club, Sir, until one month from this time,
Sir."
During this address, Fitzgerald's irascibility appeared to
undergo considerable mollification ; and at its close, he
grasped Brooke's hand, saying, " My dear Brookes, Pm
chose ; but there must be a small matter of mistake in my
election :" he then persuaded Brookes to go upstairs, and
make his compliments to the gentlemen, and say, as it was
only a mistake of one black ball, they would be so good as
to waive all ceremony on his account, and proceed to re-elect
their humble servant without any more delay at all." Many
of the members were panic-struck, forseeing a disagreeable
finale to the farce which they had been playing. Mr.
Brookes stood silent, waiting for the answer. At length, the
Earl of March, (afterwards Duke of Queensberry) said
aloud " Try the efiect of two balls : d — n his Irish impu-
dence, if two balls don't take effect upon him, I don't know
what will." This proposition was agreed to, and Brookes
was ordered to communicate the same.
On re-entering the waiting-room, Mr. Fitzgerald eagerly
inquired, " Have they elected me right, now, Mr. Brookes ?"
the reply was, '-Sorry to inform you that the result of the
second balloting is— that two black balls were dropped.
Sir." — "Then," exclaimed Fitzgerald, "there's now two
mistakes instead of one." He then persuaded Brookes
again to proceed upstairs, and tell the honourable members
to " try again, and make no more mistakes." General
go CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Fitzpatrick proposed that Brookes should reply, "His
cause was all hopeless, for that he was black-balled all mier,
from head to foot, and it was hoped by all the members that
Mr. Fitzgerald would not persist in thrusting himself into
society where his company was declined." This message
was of no avail : no sooner had Fitzgerald heard it than he
exclaimed ; "OTi, I perceive it is a mistake altogether, Mr.
Brookes, and I must see to the rectifying of it myself, there's
nothing like dating with principals ; so, I'll step up at once,
and put this thing to rights, without any more unnecessary
delay.''
In spite of Mr. Brookes's remonstrance, that his entrance
into the Club-room was against all rule and etiquette;
Fitzgerald flew upstairs, and entered the room without any
further ceremony than a bow, saying to the members, who
indignantly rose at the intrusion, "Your servant, gentlemen —
I beg ye will be sated."
Walking up to the fireplace, he thus addressed Admiral
Stewart : — " So, my dear Admiral, Mr. Brookes informs me
that I have been elected three times."
" You have been balloted for, Mr. Fitzgerald, but I am
sorry to say you have not been chosen," said Stewart.
"Well, then," replied the duellist, " Aid you black ball
me ?" — " My good Sir," answered the Admiral, " how could
you suppose such a thing ?" — " Oh, I sup-posed no such things
my dear fellow j I only want to know who it was that
dropped the black balls in by accident, as it were !"
Fitzgerald now went up to each individual member, and
put the same question seriatim, "Did you black-ball me,
Sir?" until he made the round of the whole Club; and in
each case he received a reply similar to that of the Admiral.
When he had finished his inquisition, he thus addressed the
whole body : " You see, Gentlemen, that as none of ye have
black-balled me, / must be chose; and it is Mr. Brookes that
has made the mistake. But I was convinced of it from the
beginning, and I am only sorry that so much time has been
ARTHUiaS CLUB. 91
lost as to prevent honourable gentlemen from enjoying each
other's company sooner." . He then desired the waiter to
bring him a bottle of champagne, that he might drink long
life to the Club, and wish them joy of their unanimous
election of a rael gentleman by father and mother, and who
never missed his man."
The members now saw that there was nothing to be done
but to send the intruder to Coventry, which they appeared
to do by tacit agreement ; for when Admiral Stewart de-
parted, Mr. Fitzgerald found himself cut by all his " dear
friends." The members now formed parties at the whist-
table ; and no one replied to Fitzgerald's observations nor
returned even a nod to the toasts and healths which he
drank in three bottles of champagne, which the terrified
waiter placed before him, in succession. At length, he
arose, made a low bow, and took leave, promising to "come
earlier next night, and have a little more of it." It was then
agreed that half-a-dozen stout constables should be in
waiting the next evening to bear him off to the watch-house,
if he attempted again'tb intrude. Of this measure, Fitzgerald
seemed to be aware ; for he never again showed himself at
Brookes's ; though he boasted everywhere that he had been
unanimously chosen a member of the Club.
Arthur's Club.
This Club, established more than a century since, at
No. 69, St. James's-street, derives its name from Mr. Arthur,
' the master of White's Chocolate-house in the same street.
, Mr. Cunningham records : "Arthur died in June, 1761, in
St. James's-place j and in the following October, Mr.
Mackreth married Arthur's only child, and Arthur's
Chocolate-house, as it was then called, became the property
of this Mr. Mackreth."
Walpole, writing in 1759, has this odd note: "I stared
to-day at Piccadilly like a country squire ; there are twenty
92 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
new stone houses : at first I concluded that all the grooms
that used to live there, had got estates and built palaces.
One young gentleman, who was getting an estate, but was
so indiscreet as to step out of his waj; to rob a comrade, is
convicted, and to be transported ; in short, one of the
waiters at Arthur's. George Selwyn says, ' What a horrid
idea he will give us of the people in Newgate !' "
Mackreth prospered ; for Walpole, writing to Mann, in
1774, speaking of the New Parliament, says: "Bob, formerly
a waiter at White's, was set up by my nephew for two
boroughs, and actually is returned for Castle Rising with
Mr. Wedderbume ;
' Servus curru portatur eodem ;'
which I suppose will offend the Scottish Consul, as most of
his countrymen resent an Irishman standing for Westminster,
which the former reckon a borough of their own. For my
part, waiter for waiter, I see little difference ; they were all
equally ready to cry, ' Coming, coming, Sir.' "
Mackreth was afterwards knighted ; and upon him ap-
peared this smart and well-remembered epigram :
When Mackreth served in Arthur's crew,
He said to Rumbold, " Black my shoe ;"
To which he answer'd, " Ay, Bob."
But when retum'd from India's land,
And grown too proud to brook command,
He sternly answer'd, " Nay, Bob."
The Club-house was rebuilt in 1825, upon the site of the
original Chocolate-house, Thomas Hopper, architect, at
which time it possessed more than average design : the
front is of stone, and is enriched with fluted Corinthian
columns.
White's Club.
This celebrated Club was originally established as "White's
Chocolate-house," in 1698, five doors from the bottom of
the west side of St. James's-street, " ascending from Sfc
WHITE'S CLUB. 93
James's Palace." (Hatton, 1708.) A print of the time
shows a small garden attached to the house : at the tables
in the house or garden, more than one highwayman took
his chocolate, or threw his main, before he quietly mounted
his horse, and rode down Piccadilly towards Bagshot."
(Doran's Table Traits.) It was destroyed by fire, April 28^
i733> when the house was kept by Mr. Arthur, who sub-
sequently gave his name to the Club called Arthur's, still
existing a few doors above the original White's. At the fire,
young Arthur's wife leaped out of a second floor window,
upon a feather-bed, without much hurt. A fine collection
of paintings, belonging to Sir Andrew Fountaine, valued at
3000/., was entirely destroyed. The King and the Prince
of Wales were present above an hour, and encouraged the
firemen and people to work at the engines j a guard being
ordered from St. James's to keep off the populace. His
Majesty ordered twenty guineas to be distributed among
the firemen and others that worked at the engines, and five
guineas to the guard ; and the Prince ordered the firemen
ten guineas. "The incident of the fire," says Mr. Cunningham,
" was made use of by Hogarth, in Plate VI. of the Rake's
Progress, representing a room at White's. The total ab-
straction of the gamblers is well expressed by their utter
inattention to the alarm of the fire given by watchmen, who
are bursting open the doors. Plate IV. of the same pictured
moral represents a group of chimney-sweepers and shoe-blacks
gambling on the ground over-against White's. To indicate
the Club more fully, Hogarth has inserted the name Black's.
Arthur, thus burnt out, removed to Gaunt's Cofifee-house,
next the St. James's Cofifee-house, and which bore the name
of " White's " — a myth. The Tailer, in his first Number,
promises that " all accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and
entertainment, shall be under the article of White's Choco-
late-house," Addison, in his Prologue to Steele's Tender
Husband, catches " the necessary spark " sometimes " taking
snuff at White's."
94 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The Chocolate-house, open to any one, became a private
Club-house : the earliest record is a book of rules and list
of members of the old Club at White's, dated October 30th,
1736. The principal members were the Duke of Devon-
shire ; the Earls of Cholmondeley, Chesterfield, and Rock-
ingham ; Sir John Cope, Major-General Churchill, Bubb
Dodington, and Colley Cibber. Walpole tells us that the
celebrated Earl of -Chesterfield lived at White's, gaming and
pronouncing witticisms among the boys of quality; "yet
he says to his son, that a member of a gaming club should
be a cheat, or he will soon be a beggar," an inconsistency
which reminds one of old Fuller's saw : " A father that
whipt his son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he
whipt him, did more harm by his example than -good by his
correction."
Swift, in his Essay on Modern Education, gives the
Chocolate-house a sad name. " I have heard," he says,
" that the late Earl of Oxford, in the time of his ministry,
never passed by White's Chocolate-house (the common
rendezvous of infamous- sharpers and noble cullies) without
bestowing a curse upon that famous Academy, as the bane
of half the English nobility."
The gambling character of the Club may also be gathered
from Lord Lyttelton writing to Dr. Doddridge, in 1750.
" The Dryads of Hagley are at present pretty secure, but I
tremble to 'think that the rattling of a dice-box- at White's
may one day or other (if my; son should be a member of that
noble academy)- shake down all our fine oaks; It is dread-
ful to see, not only there, but almost in every house in town
what devastations are made by that destructive fury, the
spirit of play."
Swift's character of the company is also borne out by
Walpole, in a letter to Mann, December 16, 1748 : "There
is a man about town, Sir William Burdett, a man of very
good family; but most infamous character. In short, to give
you his character at once, there is a wager entered in the
WHITirs CLUB. 95
bet-book at M'^hite's (a MS. of which I may one day or
other give you an account), that the first baronet that will be
hanged is this Sir William Burdett."
Again, Glover, the poet, in his Autobiography, tells us:
"Mir. Pelham (the Prime Minister) was originally an officer in
the army, and a professed gamester • of a narrow mind, low
parts, etc. . . . Bylong experience and attendance he became
experienced as a Parliament man ; and even when Minister,
divided his time to the last between his office and the club
of gamesters at White's." And, Pope, in the Dunciad, has :
Or chair'd at White's, amidst the doctors sit,
Teach oaths to gamesters, and to nobles wit.
The Club removed, in 1755, to the east side of St. James's-
street. No. 38. The house had had previously, a noble and
stately tenant ; for here resided the Countess of Northum-
berland, widow of Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland,
who died 1688. " My friend Lady Suffolk, her neice by
marriage," writes Wa^ole, " has talked to me of her having,
on that alHance, visited hen She then lived in the house
now White's, at the upper end of St. James'srstreet,-and was
the last who kept up the ceremonious state of the old peer-
age. When she went out to visit, a footman, bareheaded,
walked on each side of her coach, and a second coach \vith
her women attended her. I think, too, that Lady Suifolk)
told me that her granddaughter-in-law, the Duchess of
Somerset, never sat down before her without leave to do so.
I suppose, the old Duke Charles [the proud Duke] had
imbibed a good quantity of his stately pride in such a
school." {Letter to the Bishop of Dromore, September 18;
1792.) This high-minded dame had published a "Volume
of Prayers.'' '
Among the Rules of the Club,, every, member was to pay
one guinea a year towards having a good cook ; the names
of all candidates were to be deposited with Mr. Arthur or
Bob [Mackreth]. In balloting, every member was to put
96 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
in his ball, and such person or persons who refuse to com-
ply with it, shall pay the supper reckoning of that night
and, in 1769, it was agreed that ' every member of this Club
who is in the Billiard-Room at the time the Supper is
declared upon table, shall pay his reckoning if he does not
sup at the Young Club.' "
''■ Of CoUey Gibber's membership we find this- odd account
in Davies's Life of Garrick: — "Colley, we told, had the
honour to be a member of the great Club at White's ; and
so I suppose might any other man who wore good clothes,
and paid his money when he lost it. But on what terms
did Gibber live with this society ? Why, he feasted most
sumptuously, as I have heard his friend Victor say, with an
air of triumphant exultation, with Mr. Arthur and his wife,
and gave a trifle for his dinner. After he had dined, when
the Club-room door was opened, and the Laureate was
introduced, he was saluted with loud and joyous acclama-
tion of ' O King Coll ! Come in King Coll !' and ' Welcome,
welcome. King Colley !' and this kind of gratulation, Mr.
Victor thought, was very gracious and very honourable.''
In the Rules quoted by Mr. Cunningham, from the Club-
books, we find that in 1780, a dinner was ready every day
during the sitting of Parliament, at a reckoning of \2S. per
head; in 1797, at xos. 6d. per head, malt liquors, biscuits,
oranges, apples, and olives included ; hot suppers provided
at 8j-. per head; and cold meat, oysters, etc., at 4J., malt
liquor only included. And, "that Every Member who plays
at Chess, Draughts, or Backgammon do pay One Shilling
each time of playing by daylight, and half-a-crown each by
candlelight."
White's was from the beginning principally a gaming
Club. The play was mostly at hazard and faro ; no member
was to hold a faro Bank. Whist was comparatively harmless.
Professional gamblers, who lived by dice and cards, provided
they were free from the imputation of cheating, procured
admission to White's. It was a great supper-house, and there
Don Saltero's Cofifee House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. (See Tatler, No. 34. )
feTi.j-.r ' *m
'-:.^
f W : *'.i%>i
Subscription Rooms, Brookes' Club, (Whig.)
WHITES CLUB. 97
was play before and after supper, carried on to a late hour
and heavy amounts. Lord Carlisle lost 10,000/. in one
night, and was in debt to the house for the whole. He tells
Selwyn of a set, in which at one point of the game, stood to
win 50,000/. Sir John Bland, of Kippax Park, who shot
himself in 1755, as we learn from Walpole, flirted away his
whole fortune at hazard. " He t'other night exceeded what
was lost by the late Duke of Bedford, having at one period
of the night, (though he recovered the greater part of it,)
lost two-and-thirty thousand pounds."
Lord Mountford came to a tragic end through his gambling.
He had lost money; feared to be reduced to distress; asked
for a Government appointment, and determined to throw
the die of life or death, on the answer he received from
Court. The answer was unfavourable. He consulted several
persons, indirectly at first, afterwards pretty directly — on the
easiest mode of finishing life ; invited a dinner-party for the
day after ; supped at White's, and played at whist till one
o'clock of the New Year's morning. Lord Robert Bertie
drank to him " a happy new year ;" he clapped his hand
strangely to his eyes. In the morning he sent for a lawyer
and three witnesses ; executed his will ; made them read it
twice over, paragraph by paragraph; asked the lawyer if that
will would stand good though a man were to shoot himself?
Being assured it would, he said, " Pray stay, while I step
into the next room," — ^went into the next room, and shot
himself.
Walpole writes to Mann: "John Damier and his two
brothers have contracted a debt, one can scarcely expect to
be believed out of England, — of 70,000/. . . . The young
men of this age seem to make a law among themselves for
declaring their fathers superannuated at fifty, and thus dispose
of their estates as if already their own." " Can you believe
that Lord Foley's two sons have borrowed money so extrava-
gantly, that the interest they have contracted to pay, amounts
to 18,000/. a year."
98 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. '
Fox's love of play was frightful : his best friends are said
to have been half-ruined in annuities, given by them as
securities for him to the Jews. Five hundred thousand
a year of such annuities, of Fox and his Society, were adver-
tised to be sold, at one time : Walpole wondered what Fox
would do when he had sold the estates of all his friends.
Here are some instances of his desperate play. Walpole
further notes that in the debate on the Thirty-nine Articles,
February 6, 1772, Fox did not shine, "nor could it be
wondered at. He had sat up playing at hazard at Almack's,
from Tuesday evening the 4th, till five in the afternoon of
Wednesday, sth. An hour before he had recovered 12,000/.
that he had lost, and by dinner, which was at five o'clock,
he had ended losing 11,000/. On the Thursday, he spoke
in the above debate; went to dinner at past eleven at night;
from thence to White's, where he drank till seven the next
morning ; thence to Almack's, where he won 6,000/. ; and
between three and four in the afternoon he set out for New-
market. His brother Stephen lost 11,000/. two nights after,
and Charles 10,000/ more on the 13th ; so that, in three
nights, the two brothers, the eldest not twenty-five, lost
32,000/"
Walpole and a party of friends^ (Dick Edgecumbe, George
Selwyn, and Williams,) in 1756, composed a piece of heraldic
satire — a coat-of arms for the two gaming-clubs at White's, —
which was " actually engraving from a very pretty painting
of Edgecumbe, whom Mr. Chute, as Strawberry King at
arms," appointed their chief herald-painter. The blazon is
vert (for a card-table) ; three parohs proper on a chevron
sable (for a hazard-table) ; two rouleaux in saltire between
two dice proper, on a canton sable ; a white ball (for elec-
tion) argent. The supporters are an old and young knave
of clubs ; the crest, an arm oiit of an earl's coronet shaking
a dice-box ; and the motto, " Cogit amor nummi." Round
the arms is a claret-bottle ticket by way of order. The
painting above mentioned by Walpole of "the Old and
WHITE'S CLUB. 99
Young Club at Arthur's." was bought at the sale of Straw-
berry Hill by Arthur's Club-house for twenty-t^vo shillings.
At White's, the least difference of opinion invariably
ended in a bet, and a book for entering the particulars of
all bets was always laid upon the table ; one of these, with
entries of a date as early as 1744, Mr. Cunningham tells us,
had been preserved. A book for entering bets is still laid
on the table.
In these betting books are to be found bets on births,
deaths, and marriages ; the length of a life, or the duration
of a ministry ; a placeman's prospect of a coronet ; on the
shock of an earthquake ; or the last scandal at Ranelagh, or
Madame Cornelys's. A man dropped down at the door of
White's ; he was carried into the house. Was he dead or
not ? The odds were immediately given and taken for and
against. It was proposed to bleed him. , Those who had
taken the odds the man was dead, protested that the use of
a lancet would affect the fairness of the bet.
Walpole gives some ot these narratives as good stories
" made on White's." A parson coming into the Club on
the morning of the earthquake of 1750, and hearing bets
laid whether the shock was caused by an earthquake or the
blowing-up of powder-mills, went away in horror, protesting
they were such an impious set, that he believed if the last
trump were to sound, they would bet puppet-show against
Judgment." Gilly Williams writes to Selwyn, 1764, "Lord
Digby is very soon to be married to Miss Fielding." Thou-
sands might have been won in this house (White's), on his
Lordsliip not knowing that such a. being existed.
Mr. Cunningham tells us that "the marriage of a young
lady, of rank would occasion a bet of a hundred guineas,
that she would give butli to a live child before the Countess
of —,—. — -, who had been married three or even more months
before her. Heavy bets were pending, that Arthur, who was
then a widower, would be married before a member of the
Club of about the same age, and also a widower ; and that
H 2
icx) CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, would outlive the old
Duchess of Cleveland."
" One of the youth at White's," writes Walpole to Mann,
July lo, 1744, "has committed a murder, and intends to
repeat it. He betted 1500/. that a man could live twelve
hours under water ; hired a desperate fellow, sunk him in a
ship, by way of experiment, and both ship and man have
not appeared since. Another man and ship are to be tried
for their lives, instead of Mr. Blake, the assassin."
Walpole found at White's, a very remarkable entry in
their very — very remarkable wager-book, which is still pre-
served. "Lord Mountford bets Sir John Bland twenty
guineas that Nash outlives Gibber." "How odd," says
Walpole, " that these two old creatures, selected for their
antiquities, should live to see both their wagerers put an
end to their own lives ! Gibber is within a few days of
eighty-four, still hearty, and clear, and well.. I told him I
was glad to see him look so well. ' Faith,' said he, ' it is
very well that I look at all.'" Lord Mountford would
have been the winner : Gibber died in 1757 ; Nash in 1761.
Here is a nice piece of Selwyu's ready wit. He arid
Charles Townshend had a kind of wit combat together.
Selwyn, it is said, prevailed ; and Charles Townsend took
the wit home in his carriage, and dropped him at White's.
" Remember " said Selwyn, as they parted, " this is the first
set-down you have given me to-day."
" St. Leger," says Walpole, " was at the head of these
luxurious heroes — he is the hero of all fashion. I never
saw more dashing vivacity and absurdity with some flashes
of parts. He had a cause the other day for ducking a
sharper, and was going to swear ; the judge said to him, ■ ' I
see. Sir, you are very ready to take an oath.' ' Yes, my Lord,'
replied St. Leger, ' my father was a judge.' " St. Leger was
a lively club member. " Rigby," writes the Duke of
Bedford, July 2, 1751, "the town is grown extremely thin
within this week, though White's continues numerous
WHires CLUB. loi
enough, with young people only, for Mr. St. Leger's vivacity,
and the idea the old ones have of it, prevent the great
chairs at the Old Club from being filled with their proper
drowsy proprietors."
In Hogarth's gambling scene at White's, we see the
highwayman, with the pistols peeping out of his pocket,
waiting by the fireside till the heaviest winner takes his
departure, in order to " recoup " himself of his losings. And
in the Beaux' Straiegem, Aimwell asks of Gibbet, " Ha'nt I
seen your face at White's ?" — " Ay, and at Will's too," is the
highwayman's answer.
M 'Clean, the fashionable highwayman, had a lodging in
St. James's-street, over against White's ; and he was as well
known about St. James's as any gentleman who lived in that
quarter, and who, perhaps, went upon the road too.
When M'Clean was taken, in 1750, Walpole tells us that
Lord Mountford, at the head of half White's, went the first
day ; his aunt was crying over him ; as soon as they were
withdrawn, she said to him, knowing they were of White's,
" My dear, what did the Lords say to you ? Have you ever
been concerned with any of them ? Was it not admirable ?
What a favourable idea people must have of White's ! — and
wTiiit if White's should not deserve a much better?"
A waitership at a club sometimes led to fortune. Thomas
Rumbold, originally a waiter at White's, got an appointment
in India, and suddenly rose to be Sir Thomas, and
Governor of Madras. On his return, with immense wealth,
a bill of pains and penalties were brought into the House
by Dundas, with the view of stripping Sir Thomas of his
ill-gotten gains. This bill was briskly pushed through the
earlier stages ; suddenly the proceedings were arrested by
adjournment, and the measure fell to the ground. The
rumour of the day attributed Rumbold's escape to the
corrupt assistance of Rigby; who, in 1782, found himself, by
Lord North's retirement, deprived of his place in the Pay
Office, and called upon to refund a large amount of public
102 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
moneys unaccounted for. In this strait, Rigby was believed
to have had recourse to Rumbold. Their acquaintance had
commenced in earlier days, when Rigby was one of the.'
boldest " punters " at White's, and Rumbold bowed to him
for half-crowns. Rumbold is said to have given Rigby a
large sum of money, on condition of the former being
released from the impending pains and penalties. The
truth of this report has been vehemently denied ; but the
circumstances are suspicious. The bill was dropped : Dun-
das, its introducer, was Rigby's intimate associate. Rigby's
nephew and heir soon after married Rumbold's daughter.
Sir Thomas himself had married a daughter of Dr. Law,
Bishop of Carlisle. The worthy Bishop stood godfather to
one of Rumbold's children; the other godfather was the
Nabob of Arcot, and the child was christened "Mahomet."
So, at least, Walpole informs Mann.*
Rigby was a man of pleasure at White's. Wilkes, in
the North Briton, describes Rigby as "an excellent bon-
vivant, amiable and engaging; having all the gibes and
gambols, and flashes of merriment, which set the table in a
roar." In a letter to Selwyn, Rigby writes : " I am just got
home from a cock-match, where I have won forty pounds
in ready money; and not having dined, am waiting till
I hear the rattle of the coaches from the House of Commons,
in order to dine at White's. , . . The next morning I heard
there had been extreme deep play, and that Harry Furnese
went drunk from White's at six o'clock, and with the ever
memorable sum of looo guineas. He won the chief part of
Doneraile and Bob Bertie."
The Club has had freaks of epicurism. In 1751, seven
young men of fashion, headed by St. Leger, gave a dinner
at White's ; one dish was a tart of choice cherries from a
hot-house ; only one glass was tasted out of each botde of
champagne. "The bill of fare has got into print," writes
'National Review," No, 8.
BOODLES CLUB. 103
Walpole, to Mann j " and Avith good people has produced
the apprehension of another earthquake."
From Mackreth the property passed in 1784, to John
Martindale, and in 1812, to Mr. Raggett, the father of the
the present proprietor. The original form of the house was
designed by James Wyatt. From time to time, White's
underwent various alterations and additions. In the autumn
of 1850, certain improvements being thought necessary, it
came to be considered that the front was of too plain a
character, when contrasted with the many elegant buildings
which had risen up around it. Mr. Lockyer was consulted
by Mr. Raggett as to the possibility of improving the facade ;
and under his direction, four bas-reliefs, representing the
four seasons, which occupy the place of four sashes, were
designed by Mr. George Scharf, jun. The interior was
redecorated by Mr. Morant. The Club, which is at this
time limited to 500 members, was formerly composed of the
high Tory party, but though Conservative principles may
probably prevail, it has now ceased to be a political club,
and may rather be termed "Aristocratic." Several of the
present members have belonged to the Club upwards of
half a century, and the ancestors of most of the noblemen
and men of fashion of the present day who belong to the
Club were formerly members of it.
The Club has given magnificent entertainments in our
time. On June 20, 18 14, they gave a ball at Burlington
House to the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia,
and the allied sovereigns then in England ; the cost was
9849/. 2s. 6d. Three weeks after this, the Club gave to the
Duke of Wellington a dinner, which cost 2480/. los. <)d.
Boodle's Club.
This Club, originally the "Savoir vivre," which with
Brookes's and White's, forms a trio of nearly coeval date,
and each of which takes the present name of its founder, is
104 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
No. 28, St. James's-street. In its early records it was noted
for its costly gaities, and the Heroic Epistk to Sir William
Chambers, 1773, commemorates its epicurism :
For what is Nature ? King her changes round,
Her three flat notes are water, plants, and ground ;
Prolong the peal, yet, spite of all your clatter,
The tedious chime is still ground, plants, and water ;
So, when some John his dull invention racks,
To rival Boodle's dinners or Almack's,
Three uncouth legs of mutton shock our eyes.
Three roasted geese, three buttered apple-pies.
In the following year, when the Clubs vied with each
other in giving the town the most expensive masquerades
and ridottos, Gibbon speaks of one given by the members
of Boodle's, that cost 2000 guineas. Gibbon was early of
the Club; and, "it must be remembered, waddled as well
as warbled here when he exhibited that extraordinary person
which is said to have convulsed Lady Sheffield with
laughter ; and poured forth accents mellifluous like Plato's
from that still more extraordinary mouth which has been de-
scribed as 'a round hole ' in the centre of his face."*
Boodle's Club-house, designed by Holland, has long been
eclipsed by the more pretentious architecture of the Club
edifices of our time ; but the interior arrangements are well
planned. Boodle's is chiefly frequented by country gentle-
men, whose status has been thus satirically insinuated by a
contemporary : " Every Sir John belongs to Boodle's — as
you may see, for, when a waiter comes into the room arid
says to some aged student of the Morning Herald, ' Sir John,
your servant has come,' every head is mechanically thrown
up in answer to the address.' "
Among the Club pictures are portraits of C. J. Fox, and
the Duke of Devonshire. Next door, at No. 29, resided
Gillray, the caricaturist, who, in 1815, threw himself from an
upstairs window into the street, and died in consequence.
London Clubs, 1853, p. 51.
los
The Beef-steak Society.
In Hie Spet;(afor, No. 9, March 10, 1710-11, we read:
" The Beef-steak and October Clubs are neither of them
averse to eating or drinking, if we may form a judgment of
them from their respective titles." This passage refers to
the Beef-steak Club, founded in the reign of Queen Anne ;
and, it is believed, the earliest Club with that name. Dr.
King, in his Ari of Cookery, humbly inscribed to the Beef-
steak Club, 1709, has these lines :
He that of hon:)ur, wit, and mirth partakes,
May be a fit companion o'er Beefsteaks :
His name may be to futm'e times enrolled
In Estcourt's book, whose gridiron's framed with gold.
Estcourt, the actor, was made Providore of the Club ;
and for a mark of distinction wore their badge, which was a
small gridiron of gold, hung about his neck with a gi-een silk
ribbon. Such is the account given by Chetwood, in his
History of the Stage, 1749 ; to which he adds : " this Club
was composed of the chief wits and great men of the
nation." The gridiron, it will be seen hereafter, was as-
sumed as its badge, by the " Society of Beef-steaks, estab-
lished a few years later : they call themselves ' the Steaks,'
and abhor the notion of being thought a Club.'' Though
the National Review, heretical as it may appear, cannot
consent to dissever the Society from the earlier Beef-steak
Club ; which, however, would imply that Rich and Lambert
were not the founders of the Society, although so circum-
stantially shown to be. Still, the stubbornness of facts must
prevail.
Dick Estcourt was beloved by Steele, who thus introduces
him m the Spectator, No. 358 : " The best man that I know
of for heightening the real gaiety of a company is Estcourt,
whose jovial humour diffuses itself from the highest person at
an entertainment to the meanest waiter. Merry tales, accom-
io6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
panied with apt gestures and lively representations of circum-
stances and persons, beguile the gravest mind into a consent
to be as humorous as himself. Add to this, that when a man
is in his good graces, he has a mimicry that does not debase
the person he represents, but which, taken from the gravity of
the character, adds to the agreeableness of it."
Then, in the Spectator, No. 264, we find a letter from Sir
Roger de Coverley, from Coverley, " To Mr. Estcourt, at
his House in Covent Garden," addressing him as " Old
Comical One," and acknowledging " the hogsheads of neat
port came safe," and hoping next term to help fill Estcourt's
Bumper " with our people of the Club." The Bumper was
the tavern in Covent Garden, which Estcourt opened about
a year before his death. In this quality Pamell speaks ot
him in the beginning of one of his poems : —
Gay Bacchus liking Estcourt's wine
A noble meal bespoke us,
And for the guests that were to dine
Brought Comus, Love, and Jociis.
The spectator delivers this merited eulogy of the player,
just prior to his benefit at the theatre : "This pleasant fellow
gives one some idea of the ancient Pantomime, who is said
to have given the audience in dumb-show, an exact idea of
any character or passion, or an intelligible relation of any
public occurrence, with no other expression than that of his
looks and gestures. If all who have been obliged to these
talents in Estcourt will be at Love for Love to-morrow night,
they will but pay him what they owe him, at so easy a fate
as being present at a play which nobody would omit seeing,'
that had, or had not, ever seen it before."
Then, in the Spectator, No. 468, August 27, 17 12, with what
touching pathos does Steele record the last exit of this choice
spirit : " I am very sorry that I have at present a circumstance
before me which is of very great importance to all who have'
a relish for gaiety, wit, mirth, or humour : I m.ean the death
of poor Dick Estcourt. I have been obliged to him for so
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. jo?
many hours of jollity, that it is but a small recompense,
though all I can give him, to pass a moment or two in sadness
for the loss of so agreeable a man. . . . Poor Estcourt ! Let
the vain and proud be at rest, thou wilt no more disturb their
admiration of their dear selves ; and thou art no longer to
drudge in raising the mirth of stupids, who know nothing of
thy merit, for thy maintenance." Having spoken of him
" as a companion and a man qualified for conversation," —
his fortune exposing him to an obsequiousness towards the
worst sort of company, but his excellent qualities rendering
him capable of making the best figure in the most refined,
and then havmg told of his maintaining " his good humour
with a countenance or a language so delightful, without
offence to any person or thing upon earth, still preserving
the distance his circumstances obliged him to," — Steele con-
cludes with " I say, I have seen him do all this in such a
charming manner, that I am sure none of those I hint at
will read this, without giving him some sorrow for their
abundant mirth, and one gush of tears for so many bursts of
laughter. I wish it were any honour to the pleasant
creature's memory, that my eyes are too much suffused to
let me go on " We agree with Leigh Hunt that
Steele's " overfineness of nature was never more beautifully
evinced in any part of his writings than in this testimony to
the merits of poor Dick Estcourt."
Ned Wardj in his Secret History of Clubs, first edition,
1709, describes the Beef-steaks, which, he coarsely contrasts
with " the refined wits of the Kit-Cat." This new Society
griliado'd beef eaters first settled their meeting at the sign
of the Imperial Phiz, just opposite to a famous conventicle
in the Old Jury, a publick-house that has been long eminent
for the true British quintessence of malt and hops, and a
broiled sliver offthejuicyrumpofafat, well-fed bullock. . . .
This noted boozing ken, above all others in the City, was
chosen out by the Rump-steak admirers, as the fittest
mansion to entertain the Society, and to gratify their
loS CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
appetites with that particular dainty they desired to be dis-
tinguished by. [The Club met at the place appointed, and
chose for Prolocutor, an Irish comedian]. No sooner had
they confirmed their Hibernian mimic in his honourable
post, but to distinguish him from the rest, they made him a
Knight of St. Lawrence, and hung a silver gridiron (?) about
his neck, as a badge of the dignity they had conferred upon
him, that when he sung Pretty Parrot, he might thrum upon
the bars of his new instrument, and mimic a haughty
Spaniard serenading his Donna with guitar and madrigal.
The Zany, as proud of his new fangle as a German mounte-
bank of a prince's medal, when he was thus dignified and
distinguished with his cuKnary symbol hanging before his
breast, took the highest post of honour, as his place at the
board, where, as soon as seated, there was not a bar in the
silver kitchen-stuff that the Society had presented him with,
but was presently handled with a theatrical pun, or an Irish
witticism. . . . Orders v/ere despatched to the superinten-
dent of the kitchen to provide several nice specimens of
their Beef-steak cookery, some with the flavour of a shalot
or onion; some broil'd, some fry'd, some stew'd, some
toasted, and others roasted, that every judicious member of
the new erected Club might appeal to his palate, and from
thence determine whether the house they had chosen for
their rendezvous truly deserved that public fame for their
inimitable management of a bovinary sliver which the world
had given them. . . . When they had moderately supplied
their beef stomachs, they were all highly satisfy'd with the
choice they had made, and from that time resolved to
repeat their meeting once a week in the same place." [At
the next meeting the constitution and bye-laws of the new
little commonwealth were settled ; and for the further
encouragement of wit and pleasantry thoughout the whole
Society, there was provided a very voluminous paper book,
" about as thick as a bale of Dutch linen, into which were to
be entered every witty saying that should be spoke in the
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 109
Society :" this nearly proved a failure ; but Ward gives a
taste of the performances by reciting some that had been
stolen out of their Journal by a false Brother; here is
one : — ]
ON AN ox.
Most noble creature of the horned race,
Who labonrs at the plough to earn thy grass,
And yielding to the yoke, shows man the way 1
To bear his servile chains, and to obey
More haughty tyrants, who usurp the sway.
Thy sturdy sinews till the farmer's grounds.
To thee the grazier owes his hoarded pounds ;
'Tis by thy labour, we abound in malt.
Whose powerful juice the meaner slaves exalt ;
And when grown fat, and fit to be devour'd,
The pole-ax frees thee from the teazing goard :
Thus cruel man, to recompense thy pains,
First works thee hard, and then beats out thy brains.
Ward is very hard upon the Kit-Cat community, and tells
us that the Beef-steaks, " like true Britons, to show their
resentment in contempt of Kit-Cat pies, very justly gave the
preference to a rump-steak, most wisely agreeing that the
venerable word, beef, gave a more masculine grace, and
sounded better in the title of a true English Club, than
either pies or Kit-Cat ; and that a gridiron, which has the
honour to be made the badge of a Saint's martyrdom, was a
nobler symbol of their Christian integrity, than two or three
stars or garters ; who learnedly recollecting how great an
affinity the word bull has to beef, they thought it very con-
sistent with the constitution of their Society, instead of
a Welsh to have a Hibernian secretary. Being thus fixed to
the great honour of a little alehouse, next door to the
Church, and opposite to the Meeting, they continued to
meet for some time ; till their fame spreading over all the
town, and reaching the ears of the great boys and little boys,
as they came in the evening from Merchant Taylors' School,
they could not forbear hollowing as they passed the door ;
^tnd being acquainted with their nights of meeting, they
no CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
seldom failed when the divan was sitting, of complimenting
their ears with ' Huzza ! Beef-steak i' — that they might
know from thence, how much they were reverenced for men
of learning by the very school-boys."
" But the modest Club," says Ward, " not affecting
popularity, and choosing rather to be deaf to all public
flatteries, thought it an act of prudence to adjourn from
thence into a place of obscurity, where they might feast
knuckle-deep in luscious gravy, and enjoy themselves free
from the noisy addresses of the young scholastic rabble ;
so that now, whether they have healed the breach, and are
again returned into the Kit-Cat community, from whence it
is believed upon some disgust, they at first separated, or
whether, like the Calves' Head Club they remove from
place to place, to prevent discovery, I sha'n't presume to
determine ; but at the present, like Oates's army of pilgrims,
in the time of the plot, though they are much talk'd of they
are difficult to be found." The " Secret history " concludes
with an address to the Club, from which these are specimen
lines :
Such strenuous lines, so cheering, soft, and sweet,
That daily flow from your conjunctive wit,
Proclaim the power of Beef, that noble meat.
Your tuneful songs such deep impression make,
And of such awftil beauteous strength partake,
Each stanza seems an ox, each line a steak.
As if the rump in slices, broil'd or stew'd
In its own gravy, till divinely good,
Turned all to powerful wit, as soon as chew'd.
To grind thy gravy out their jaws employ,
O'er heaps of reeking steaks express their joy,
And sing of Beef as Homer did of Troy.
We shall now more closely examine the origin and history
of the Sublime Society of the Steaks, which has its pedigree,
its ancestry, and its title-deeds. The gridiron of 1735 is the
real gridiron on which its first steak was broiled. Henry
Rich (Lun, the first Harlequin) was the founder, to whotn
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 1 1 1
Garrick thus alludes in a prologiie to the Irish experiment of
a speaking pantomime :
When Lun appeared, with matchless art and whim,
He gave tlie power of speech to every limb.
Though maslced and mute conveyed his true intent,
And told in ifrolic gestm-es what he meant ;
But now the motley coat and sword of wood,
Requii'e a tongue to make them understood.
There is a letter extant, written by Nixon, the treasurer,
probably to some artist, granting perinission by the Beef-
steak Society " to copy the original gridiron, and I have
wrote on the other side of this sheet a note to Mr. White.at
the Bedford, to introduce you to our room for the purpose
making your drawing.' The first spare moment I can take
from my business shall be employed in making a short
statement of the rise and establishment of the Beef-steak
Society."
Rich, in 1732, left the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre for
Covent Garden, the success of the Beggar^ Opera having
" made Gay rich and Rich gay:" He was accustomed to
arrange the coihic business and construct thd iModels of tricks
for his pantomimes in his private room at Covent Garden.
Here resorted men of rank and wit, for Rich's colloquial
oddities were much relished. Thither came Mordaunt, Earl
of Peterborough, the friend of Pope, and thus commemorated
by Swift:
Mordanto iills the trump of fame ;
The Christian world his death proclaim ;
And prints are crowdjed with his name.
In journeys he outrides the post ;
Sits up till midnight with his host ;
Talks politics and gives' the toast,
A skeleton in outward tigiire ; . ,■
His meagi-e corpse, though full ol vigour.
Would halt behind him, were it bigger,
So wonderful his expedition ;
When you havB not the least suspicion,
He'smth you, like an apparition ;
112 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Shines in all climates like a star ;
In senates bold, and fierce in war ;
A land-commandant and a tar.
He was then advanced in years, and one afternoon stayed
talking with Rich about his tricks and transformations, and
listening to his agreeable talk, until Rich's dinner-hour, two
o'clock, had arrived. In all these colloquies witii his visitors,
whatever their rank. Rich never neglected his art. Upon
one occasion, accident having detained the Earl's coach later
than usual, he found Rich's chat so agreeable, that he was
quite unconscious it was two o'clock in the afternoon; when
he observed Rich spreading a cloth, then coaxing his iire
into a clear cooking flame, and proceeding, with great gravity,
to cook his own beef-steak on his own gridiron. The steak
sent up a most inviting incense, and my Lord could not
resist Rich's invitation to partake of it. A further supply
was sent for ; and a bottle or two of good wine from a
neighbouring tavern prolonged their enjoyment to a late
hour. But so delighted was the old Peer with the entertain-
ment, that, on going away, he proposed renewing it at the
same place and hour, on the Saturday following. He was
punctual to his engagement, and brought with him three or
four friends, " men of wit and pleasure about town," as M.
Bouges would call them ; and so truly festive was the meet-
ing that it was proposed a Saturday's club should be held
there, whilst the town remained full. A sumptuary law, even
at this early period of the Society, restricted the bill of fare
to beef-steaks, and the beverage to port-wine and punch.
However, the origin of the Society is related with a
difference. Edwards, in his Anecdotes of Painting, relates
that Lambert, many years principal scene-painter at Covent
Garden Theatre, received, in his painting-room, persons of
rank and talent ; where, as he could not leave for dinner, he
frequently was content with a steak, which he himself broiled
upon the fire in his room. Sometimes the visitors partook
of the hasty meal, and out of this practice grew the Beef-
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 1 13'
Steak Society, and the assembling in the painting-room. The
members were afterwards accommodated with a room in the
playhouse ; and when the Theatre was rebuilt, the place of
meeting was changed to the Shakespeare Tavern, where was
the portrait of Lambert, painted by Hudson, Sir Joshua
Reynolds's master.
In the Connoisseur, June 6th, 1754, we read of the Society,
" composed of the most ingenious artists in the Kingdom,"
meeting " every Saturday in a noble room at the top of
Covent Garden Theatre," and never suffering "a:ny diet
except Beef-steaks to appear. These, indeed, are most
glorious examples : but what, alas ! are this weak endeavours
of a few to oppose the daily inroads of fricassees and soup-
maigres f
However, the apartments in the theatre appropriated to
the Society varied. Thus, we read of a painting-room even
with the stage over the kitchen, which was under part of the
stage nearest Bow-street. At one period, the Society dined
in a small room over the passage of the theatre. The steaks
were dressed in the same room, and when they found it too
hot, a curtain was drawn between the company and the fire.
We shall now glance at the celebrities who came to the
painting-room in the Lincoln's Inn Fields theatre, and the
later locations of the Club, in Covent Garden. To the
former came Hogarth and his fathfer-in-law, Sir James
Thomhill, stimulated by their love of the painter's art, and
the equally potent charm of conviviality.
Churchill was introduced to the Steaks by his friend
Wilkes ; but his irregularities were too much for the Society,
which was by no means particular ; his desertion of his wife
brought a hornets' swarm about him, so that he soon resigned,
to avoid the disgrace of expulsion. Churchill attributed this
flinging of the first stone to Lord Sandwich ; he never for-
gave the peccant Peer, but put him into the' pillory of his fierce
satire, which has outlived most of his other writinjgs, and here
it IS :
I
XI4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
From his youth upwards to the present clay,
When vices more than years have made liim grey ;
When riotous excess with wasteful hand
Shakes life's frail glass, and hastes each ebbing sand ;
Unmindful from what stock he drew his birth,
Untainted with one deed of real worth —
Lothario, holding honoitr at no price.
Folly, to folly, added vice to vice.
Wrought sin with greediness, and courted shame
With greater zeal than good men seek for fame.
Churchill, in a letter to Wilkes, says, "Your friends at the
Beef-steak inquired after you last Saturday with the greatest
zeal, and it gave me no small pleasure that I was the person
of whom the inquiry was made.'' Charles Price was allowed
to be one of the most witty of the Society, and it is related
that he and Churchill kept the table in a roar.
Formerly, the members wore a blue coat, with red cape
and cuffs ; buttons with the initials B. S. ; and behind the ,
President's chair was placed the Society's halbert, which,
with the gridiron, was found among the rubbish after the
Covent Garden fire.
Mr. Justice Welsh was frequently chairman at the Beef-
steak dinner. Mrs. NoUekens, his daughter, acknowledges
that she often dressed a hat for the purpose, with ribbpns ,
similar to those worn by the yeomen of the guard. The
Justice was a loyal man, but discontinued his membership
when Wilkes joined the Society ; though the latter was the
man at the Steaks.
To the Steaks Wilkes sent a copy of his infamous Essay
on Women, first printed for private circulation ; for which
Lord Sandwich — ^Jemmy. Twitcher — ^himself, as we have
seen, a member of the Society — moved in the House of
Lords that Wilkes should be taken into custody; a,
piece of treason as the act of one brother of the Steaks; j
against another, fouler than even the trick of "dirty.
Kidgell," the parson, who, as a friend of the author, got a,,
copy of the Essay from the printer, and then felt it his duty-.
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIE TV. 115
to denounce the publication ; he had been encouraged to
inform against Wilkes's Essay by the Earl of March, after^
wards Duke of Queensbeny. However, Jemmy Twitcher
himself was expelled by the Steaks the same year he assailed
Wilkes for the Essay ; the gfossness and blasphemy of the
poem disgusted the Society ; and Wilkes never dined there
after 1763; yet, when he went to France, they hypocritically
made him an honorary member.
Garrick was an honoured member of the Steaks ; though
he did not affect Clubs. The Society possess a hat and
sword which David wore, probably on the night when he
stayed so long with the Steaks, and had to play Ranger, at
Drury-lane. The pit grew restless, the gallery bawled
" Manager, manager !" Garrick had been sent for to
Covent Garden, where the Stea,ks then dined, Carriages
blocked up Russell-street, and he had to. thread his way
between them ; as he came panting into the theatre, " I
think, David," said Ford, one of the anxious patentees,
" considering the stake you and I have in this house, you
might pay more attention to the business."-^" True, my
good friend," returned Garrick, " but I was thmking of my
steak in the other house." ,
Many a reconciliation of parted friends has taken place at
this Club. Peake, in his Memoirs of the Colman Faintly,
thus refers to a reconciliation between Garrick and Colman
the elder, through the Sublime Society : —
"Whether Mr. Clutterbuck or other, friends interfered to
reconcile the two dramatists, or whether the considerations
of mutual interest may not in a great measure have aided in
healing the breach between Colman and Garrick, is not pre-
cisely to be determined ; but it would appear, from the sub-
joined short note from Garrick, that Colman must have made
some overture to him.
" ' My dear Colman, — Becket has been with me, and tells
me of your friendly intentions towards me. I should have
been beforehand with you, had I not been ill with the beef-
I 2
Il6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Steaks and arrack punch last Saturday, and was obliged to
leave the play-house.
" ' He that parts us shall bring a brand from Heav'n,
And fire us hence.
" ' Ever yours, old and new friend,
'"D. Garrick.'"
The beef-steaks, arrack punch, and Saturday, all savour
very strongly of a visit to the Sublime Society held at that
period in Covent Garden Theatre, where many a clever
fellow has had his diaphragm disordered, before that time
and since. Whoever has had the pleasure to join their
convivial board ; to witness the never-failing good-humour
which predominates there ; to listen to the merry songs, and
to the sparkling repartee; and to experience the hearty
welcome and marked attention paid to visitors, could never
have cause to lament, as Garrick has done, a trifling illness
the following day. There must have been originally a wise
and simple code of laws, which could have held together a
convivial meeting for so lengthened a period.
Garrick had no slight tincture of vanity, and was fond of
accusing himself, in the Chesterfield phrase, of the cardinal
virtues. Having remarked at the Steaks that he had so
large a mass of manuscript plays submitted to him, that they
were constantly' liable to be mislaid, he observed that, un-
pleasant as it was to reject an author's piece, it was an affront
to his feelings if it could not be instantly found ; and that
for this reason he made a point of ticketing and labelling
the play that was to be returned, that it might be forth-
coming at a moment. '' Afig for your hypocrisy," exclaimed
Murphy across the table; "you know, Davy, you mislaid
my tragedy two months ago, and I make no doubt you have
lost it." — "Yes," replied Garrick; "but you forgot, you
ungrateful dog, that I offered you more than its value, for
you might have had two manuscript farces in its stead."
This is the right paternity of an anecdote often told of other
parties.
J HE BEEF-STEAK SOCIF/ry. 117
Jack Richards, a well-known' presbyter of the Society,
unless when the " fell serjieant," the gout, had arrested him,
never absented himself from its board. He was recorder,
and there is nothing in comedy equal to his passing sentence
on those who had offended against the rules and observances
of the Society. Having put on Garrick's hat, he proceeded
to inflict a long, wordy harangue upon the culprit, who often
endeavoured most unavailingly to stop him. Nor was it
possible to see when he meant to stop. But the imperturbable
gravity with which Jack performed his office, and the fruit-
less writhings of the luckless being on whom the shower of
his rhetoric was discharged, constituted the amusement of
the scene. There was no subject upon which Jack's exu-
berance of talk failed him ; yet, in that stream of talk there
was never mingled one drop of malignity, nor of unkind
censure upon the erring or unhappy. He would as soon
adulterate his glass of port-wine with water, as dash that
honest though incessant prattle with one malevolent or un-
generous remark.
William Linley, the brother of Mrs. Sheridan, charmed
the Society -ivith his pure, simple English song : in a melody
of Ame's, or of Jackson's of Exeter, or a simple air of his
father's, lie excelled to admiration, — faithful to the charap-
teristic chastity of the style of singing peculiar to the Linley
family. Linley had not what is called a fine voice, and port-
wine and late nights did not improve his organ; but you forgot
the deficiencies of his power, in the spirit and taste of his
manner. He wrote a novel in three volumes, which was so
schooled by the Steaks that he wrote no more : when the
agony of wounded authorship was over, he used to exclaim
to his tormentors : —
This is no flattery ; these are the counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.
His merciless Zoilus brought a volume of the work in his
pocket, and read a passage of it aloud. Yet, Linley never
betrayed the irritable sulkiness of a roasted author, but took
Ii8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
the pleasantries that played around him with impertivrhable
good-humour : he laughed heartily at his own platitudes,
and thus the very martyr of the joke became its auxiliary.
Ijnley is said to have furnished Moore, for his Life of
Sheridan, with the common-place books in which his brother-
in-law was wont to deposit his dramatic sketches, and to
bottle up his jokes he had collected for future use ; but
many pleasantries of Sheridan were deeply engraved on his
recollection because they had been practised upon himself,
or upon his brother Hozy (as Sheridan called him), who was
an unfailing butt, when he was disposed to amuse himself
with a practical jest.
Another excellent brother was Dick Wilson, whose
volcanic complexion had for many years been assuming
deeper and deeper tints of carnation over the port-wine of
the Society. Dick was a wealthy solicitor, and many years
Lord Eldon's " port-wine-loving secretary." His • fortunes
were very singular. He was first steward and solicitor, and
afterwards residuary legatee, of Lord Chedworth. He is
said to have owed the favour of this eccentric nobleman to
the legal acumen he displayed at a Richmond water-party;
A pleasant lawn, under a spreading beech-tree in one of
Mr. Cambridge's meadows, was selected for tlie dinner ; but
on pulling to the shore, behold a board in the tree pro-
claiming, "All persons landing and dining here will be
prosecuted according to law." Dick Wilson contended that
the prohibition clearly applied only to the joint act of
" landing and dining " at the particular spot. If the party
landed a few yards lower down, and then dined under the
tree, only one member of the condition would be broken ;
which would be no legal infringement, as the prohibition —
being of two acts, linked by a copulative — was not severable.
This astute argument carried the day. The party dined
under Mr. Cambridge's beech-tree, and, it is presumed, were
not "prosecuted according to law." At all events, Lord
Chedworth, who was one of the diners, was so charmed with
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIE TV. 119
Dick's ready application of his law to practice, that he com-
mitted to him the management of his large and accumulating
property.
Dick stood the fire of the Steaks with good humour ; but
he was sometimes unmercifully roasted. He had just re-
turned from Paris, when Arnold, with great dexterity, drew
him into some Parisian details, with great glee j for Dick
was entirely innocent of the French language. Thus, in
enumerating the dishes at a French table, he thought the
3m/evards delicious; whenCobbecalledout, "Dick,it was well
they did not serve you at the Palais Royal for sauce to yoiir
boulevards" The riz de vcan he called 2. rendezvous ; and
he could not bear partridges served up in 'shoes ; and once,
intending to ask for a pheasant, he desu-ed the waiter to
bring him ■& paysannc ! Yet, Dick was shrewd : calling one
day upon Cobbe at the India House, Dick was left to him-
self for a few minutes, when he was found by Cobbe, on his
return, exploring a map of Asia suspended on the wall : he
was measuring the scale of it with compasses, and then
applying them to a large tiger, which the artist had intro-
duced as one of the animals of the country. " By heavens,
Cobbe," exclaimed Dicli, " I should never have believed it !
Surely, it must be a mistake. Observe now^ — here," pointing
to the tiger, " here is a tiger that measures two-and-twenty
leagues. By heavens, it is scarcely credible."
Another of the noteworthy Steaks was "Old Walsh,"
commonly called " the Gentle Shepherd :" he began life as
a servant of the celebrated Lord Chesterfield, and accom-
panied his natural son, Philip Stanhope, on the grand tour,
as valet : after this he was made a. Queen's messenger, and
subsequently a Commissioner of Customs ; he was a good-
natured butt for the Society's jokes. Rowland Stephenson,
the banker, was another Beef-Steaker, then respected for his
clear head and warm heart, years before he became branded
as a forger. At the same table was a capitalist of very high
character — ^William Joseph Denison, who sat many years in
120 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Parliament for Surrey, and died a inillionnaire : he was a
man of cultivated tastes, and long enjoyed the circle of the
Steaks.
We have seen how the corner-stone of the sublime So-
ciety was laid. The gridiron upon which Rich had broiled
his solitary steak, being insufficient in a short, time for the
supernumerary guests, the gridiron was enshrined as one of
the tutelary and household emblems of the Club. For-
tunately, it escaped the fire which consumed Covent Garden
Theatre in 1808, when the valuable stock of wine of the
Club shared the fate of the building ; but the gridiron was
saved. " In that fire, alas !" says the author of 71ie Clubs of
London, " perished the original archives of the Society.
The lovers of wit and pleasantry have much to deplore in
that loss, inasmuch as not only the names of many of the
early members are irretrievably gone, but what is more to be
regretted, some of their happiest effiisions ; for it was then
customary to register in the weekly records anything of
striking excellence that had been hit off in the course of the
evening. This, however, is certain, that the Beaf-steaks,
from its foundation to the present hour, has been —
' native to famous wits
Or hospitable.'
That as guests or members, persons distinguished for
rank, and social and convivial powers, have, through suc-
cessive generations, been seated at its festive board — Bubb
Dodington, Aaron Hill ; Hoadley, author of The Suspicious
Husband, and Leonidas Glover, are only a few names
snatched from its early list. Sir Peere Williams, a gen-
tleman of high birth and fashion, who had already shone
in Parliament, was of the Club. Then came the days of
Lord Sandwich, Wilkes, Bonnell Thornton, Arthur Murphy,
Churchill, and Tickell. This is generally quoted as the
golden period of the Society." Then there were the Col-
mans and Garrick; and John Beard, the singer, was
president of the Club in 1784.
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 121
The number of the Steaks was increased from twenty-
four to twenty-five, in 1785, to admit the Prince of Wales,
an event of sufficient moment to find record in the Anniial
Register of the year,: " On Saturday, the 14th of May, the
Prince of Wales was admitted a member of the. Beef-steak
Club. His Royal Highness having signified his wish of be-
longing to that Society, and there not being a vacancy, it was
proposed to make him an honorary member ; but that being
declined by his Royal Highness, it was agreed to increase
the number from twenty-four to twenty-five, in consequence
of which His Royal Highness was unanimously elected.
The Beef-steak Club has been instituted just fifty years, and
consists of some of the most classical and sprightly wits in
the kingdom.'' It is curious to find the Society here
termed a Club, contrary to its desire, for it stickled much
for the distinction.
Arthur Murphy, the dramatist, John Kemble, the Dukes
of Clarence and of Sussex, were also of the Steaks : these
princes were both attached to the theatre ; the latter to one
of its brightest ornaments, Dorothy Jordan.
Charles, Duke of Norfolk, was another celebrity of the
Steaks, and frequently met here the Prince of Wales. The
Duke was a great gourmand, and, it is said, used to eat his
dish of fish at a neighbouring tavern — the Piazza, or the
Grand — and then join the Steaks. His fidus Achates
was Charles Morris, the laureate-lyrist of the Steaks. Their
attachment was unswerving, notwithstanding it has been
impeached. The poet kept better hours than his ducal
friend : one evening, Morris having left the dinner-table
early, a friend gave some significant hints as to the im-
provement of Morris's fortunes : the Duke grew generous
over his wine, and promised ; the performance came, and
Morris lived to the age of ninety-three to enjoy the realization.
The Duke took the chair when the cloth was removed.
It was a place of dignity, elevated some steps above the
table, and decorated with the insignia of the Society,
122 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
amongst which was suspended Garrick's Ranger hat. As
the clock struck five, a curtain drew up, discovering the
kitchen, in which the cooks were seen at work, through
a sort of grating, with this inscription from Macbeth ': — ■
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.
The steaks themselves were in the finest order, in
devouring them no one surpassed His Grace of Norfolk :
two or three steaks, fragrant from the gridiron, vanished,
and when his labours were thought, to be over,, he might' te
seen rubbing a clean plate with a shalot for the reception of
another. A pause of ten minutes ensued, and His Grace
rested upon his knife and fork : he was tarrying for a steak from
the middle of the rump of beef, where lurks a fifth essence,
the perfect ideal of tenderness and flavour. The Duke
was an enormous eater. He would often eat between
three and four pounds of beef-steak ; and after that take a
Spanish onion and beet-root, chop them together with oil
and vinegar, and eat them. After dinner, the Duke was
ceremoniously ushejred to the chair, and invested with ah
orange-coloured ribbon, to which a small silver gridiron*
was appended. In the chair he comported himself with
urbanity and good humour. Usually, the president was
the target, at which all the jests and witticisms were fired,
but moderately ; for though a characteristic equality reigned
at the Steaks, the influences of rank and station were felt
there, arid courtesy stole insensibly upon those who at other
times were merciless assailants on the chair. The Duke's
conversation abounded with anecdote, terseness of phrase,
and evidence of extensive reading, which were rarely im-
paired by the sturdy port-wine of the Society. Charles
Morris, the bard of the Club, sang one or two of his o>vn
* At tlie sale of the curiosities belonging to Mr. Harly, the comedian,
at Gower-street, in November, 1858, a silver gridiron, worn by a mem-
ber of the Steaks, was sold for \l. y.
• THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 123.
songs, the quintessence of convivial mirth and fancy ; at
nine o'clock the Duke quitted the chair, and was succeeded
by Sir John Hippisley, who had a terrible time of it : a
storm of "arrowy sleet and iron shower" whistled from all
points in his ears : all rules of civilized warfare seemed
suspended, and even the new members tried their first timid
essays upon the Baronet, than whom no man was more
prompt to attack others. He quitted the Society in conse-
quence of an odd adventure which really happened to him,
and which, being related with malicious fidelity by one of
the Steaks, raised such a shout of laughter at the Baronet's
expense that he could no longer bear it. Here is the story.
Sir John was an intelligent man ; Windham used to say of
him that he was very near being a clever man. He was a
sort of busy idler; and his ruling passion was that of
visiting remarkable criminals in prison, and obtaining their
histories from their own lips. A murder had been com-
mitted, by one Patch, upon a Mr. Bligh, at Deptford ; the
evidence was circumstantial, but the inference of his guilt
was almost irresistible; still many well-disposed persons
doubted the man's guilt, and amongst them was Sir John,
who tlioiight the anxiety could only be relieved by Patch's
confession. For this end. Sir John importuned the poor
wretch incessantly, but in vain. Patch persisted in asserting
his innocence, till wearied with Hippisle/s applications, he
assured the Baronet thkt he would reveal to him, on the
scaffold, all that he knew of Mr. Bligh's death. Flattered
with being made the depository of this mysterious commu-
nication. Sir John mounted the scaffold with Patch, and was
seen for some minutes in close conference with him. It
happened that a simple old woman from the country was
in the crowd at the execution. Her eyes, intent upon the
^wful scene, were fixed, by an accidental misdirection upon
Sir John, whom she mistook for the person who was about
to be executed; and not waiting till the criminal was
actually turned off, she went away with the wrong impres-
124 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
sion j the peculiar face, aiid above all, the peculiar nose (a
most miraculous organ), of Hippisley, being indelibly im-
pressed upon her memory. Not many days after, the old
lady met Sir John in Cheapside ; the certainty that he was
Patch seized her so forcibly that she screamed out to the
passing crowd, " It's Patch, it's Patch ; I saw him hanged ;
Heaven deliver me ! " — and then fainted. When this incident
was first related at the Steaks, a mock inquest was set on
foot, to decide whether Sir John was Patch or not, and
unanimously decided in the affirmative.
Cobb, Secretary of the East India Company, was another
choice spirit at the Steaks : once, when he filled the vice-
chair, he so worried the poor president, an Alderman, that he
exclaimed, " Would to Heaven, I had another vice-president,
so that I had a gentlevian opposite to me !" — " Why should
you wish any such thing?" rejoined Cobb; "you cannot
be more opposite to a gentleman than you are at present"
After the fire at Covent Garden, the Sublime Society
were re-established at the Bedford, where they met until
Mr. Arnold had fitted up apartments for their reception in
the English Opera House. The Steaks continued to meet
here until the destruction of the Theatre by fire, in 1830 ;
after which they returned to the Bedford; and, upon the
re-building of the Lyceum Theatre, a dining-room was
again provided for them. " The room they dine in," says
Mr. Cunningham, " a Uttle Escurial in itself, is most appro-
priately fitted up — the doors, wainscoting, and roof, of good
old English oak, ornamented with gridirons as thick as
Henry the Seventh's Chapel with the portcullis of the
founder. Everything assumes the shape, or is distinguished
by the representation, of their emblematic implement, the
gridiron. The cook is seen at his office through the bars
of a spacious gridiron, and the original gridiron of the
Society, (the survivor of two terrific fires), holds a con-
spicuous position in the centre of the ceiling. Every
member has the power of inviting a friend." The portraits
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 125
of several worthies of the Sublime Society were painted : one
brother "hangs in chain," as Arnold remarked in alluding to
the civic chain in which he is represented ; it was in allusion
to the toga in which he is painted, that Brougham, being
asked whether he thought it a likeness, remarked that it
could not fail of being like him, " there was so much of the^
fur (thief) about it."
The author of the Clubs in London, who was a member of
the Sublime Society, describes a right in favouring them, "a
brotherhood, a sentiment of equality. How you would
laugh to see the junior member emerging from the cellar,
with half-a-dozen bottles in a basket ! I have seen Brougham
employed in this honourable diplomacy, and executing it
with the correctness of a butler. The Duke of Leinster, in
his turn, took the same duty.
" With regard to Brougham, at first siglit you would not
set him down as having a natural and prompt alacrity for
the style of humour that prevails amongst us. But Brougham
is an excellent member, and is a remarkable instance of the
peculiai influences of this peculiar Society on the human
character. We took him just as the schools of philosophy,
the bar, the senate, had made him. Literary, forensic, and
parliamentary habits are most intractable materials, you will
say, to make a member of the Steaks, yet no man has
imbibed more of its spirit, and he enters its occasional
gladiatorship \vith the greatest glee."
Admirable were the offhand puns and passes, which,
though of a legal character, were played off by Bolland,
another member of the Society. Brougham was putting
hypothetically the case of a man convicted of felony, and
duly hanged according to law; but restored to life by
medical appliances; and asked what would be the man's
defence if again brought to trial. " Why," returned Bolland,
" it would be for him to plead a cord and satisfaction."
[" Accord and satisfaction " is a common plea in legal
practice.] The same evening Tt-ere "Iked over Dean
t26
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Swift's ingenious but grotesque puns upon the names of
antiquity, such as Ajax, Archimedes, and others equally
well known. BoUand remarked that when Swift w^as look-
ing out for those humorous quibbles, it was singular that it
should never have occurred to him that among the shades
that accost ^neas in the sixth book of the ^neid, there was
a Scotchman of the name of Hugh Forbes. Those who
had read Virgil began to stare. "It is quite plain," said
Bolland : " the ghost exclaims, ' Olim Euphorbus eram.' "
The following are the first twenty-four names of the Club,
copied from their book:* —
George Lambert.
William Hogarth.
John Rich.
Lacy Ryan.
Ebenezer Forrest.
Robert Scott.
Thomas Chapman.
Dennis Delane.
John Thomhill.
Francis Niveton.
Sir William Saunderson.
Richard Mitchell.
The following were subsequent
Francis Hayman.
Theo. Gibber.
Mr. Saunders Welsh.
Thomas Hudson.
John Churchill.
Mr. Williamson.
In 1805 the members were —
Sir J. Boyd.
Estcourt.
J. Travanion, jun.
Earl of Suffolk.
Crossdill.
J. Kemble, expelled for his
mode of conduct.
John Boson.
Henry Smart.
John Huggins.
Hugh Watson.
William Huggins.
Edmund Tuffnell.
Thomas Salway.
Charles Neale.
Charles Latrobe.
Alexander Gordon.
William Tathall.
Gabriel Hunt.
members : —
Mr. Beard.
Mr. Wilkes.
Lord Sandwicli,
Prince of Wales.
Mr. Havard.
Chas. Price.
Prince of Wales,
Charles Howard, Duke of
Norfolk.
Mingay.
Johnson.
Scudamore.
Haworth.
* TTiis and the subsequent lists have been printed by Mr. John
Green.
TI1£ BEEF-STEAK SOCIE TV. 1 27
November 6th, 1814 :-t-
Stephenson. Wilson.
Cobb. Ellis.
Richards. Walsh.
Sir J. Scott, Bart. Linley.
Foley. Duke of Norfolk.
Arnold. Mayo.
Braddyll. Duke of Sussex.
Nettleshipp. Morrice.
Middleton. Bolland.
Denison. Lord Grantley.
Johnson. Peter Moore.
Scudamore. Dunn, Treasurer of Drury
Nixon. Lane Theatre.
T. Scott.
When the Club dined at the Shakspeare, m the room with
the Lion's head over the mantelpiece, these popular actors
were members : —
Lewis. Pope.
Irish Johnson. Holman.
Munden. Simmonds.
Fawcett.
Formerly, the table-cloths had gridirons in damask on
them; their drinking-glasses bore gridirons; as did the plates
also. Among the presents made to the Society are a punch-
ladle, from Barrington Bradshaw; Sir John Boyd, six spoons;
mustard pot, by John Trevanion, M.P. ; two dozen water-
plates and eight dishes, given by the Duke of Sussex ; cruet-
stand, given by W. Bolland; vinegar-glasses, by Thomas
Scott. Lord Suffolk gave a silver cheese-toaster ; toasted or
stewed cheese being the wind-up of the dinner.
Captain Morris, .
THE BARD OF THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY.
Hitherto we have mentioned but incidentally Charles
Morris, the Nestor and the laureate of the Steaks ; but he
merits fullei record. " Alas ! poor Yorick ! we knew him
well;" we remember his "political vest," to which he
128 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
addressed a sweet lyric — ^" The Old Whig Poet to his Old
Buff Waistcoat."* Nor can we forget his courteous manner
and his gentlemanly pleasantry, and his unflagging cheerful-
ness, long after he had retired to enjoy the delights of rural
life, despite the early prayer of his racy verse : —
In town let me live then, in town let me die ;
For in truth I can't relish the country, not I.
If one must have a villa in summer to dwell,
Oh ! give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall.
This " sweet shady side" has almost disappeared ; and of
the palace whereat he was wont to shine, not a trace remains,
save the name. Charles Morris was born of good family, in
1745, and appears to have inherited a taste for lyric com-
position ; for his father composed the popular song of Kitty
Crowder. For half a century, Morris moved in the first-
circles of rank and gaiety : he was the " Sun of the table,"
at Carlton House, as well as at Norfolk House ; and attach-
ing himself politically as well as convivially to his table
companions, he composed the celebrated ballads of " Billy's
too young to drive us," and " Billy Pitt and, the Farmer,"
which were clever satires upon the ascendant politics of their
day. His humorous ridicule of the Tories was, however,
but ill repaid by the Whigs ; at least, if we may trust the
Ode to the Buff Waistcoat, written in 1815. His "Songs
Political and Convivial," many of which were sung at the
Steaks' board, became very popular. In 1830, we possessed
a copy of Ihe 24th edition, with a portrait of the author, half-
masked; one of the ditties was described to have been "sung
by the Prince of Wales to a certain lady," to the air of
" There's a difference between a Beggar and a Queen j"
some of the early songs were condemned for their pruriency,
and were omitted in subsequent editions. His best Ana-
creontic is the song Ad Poculum, for which Morris received
the Gold Cup from the Harmonic Society:
* See Century of Anecdote, vol. i. p. 321.
United University Club, Pall Mall.
Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall.
CAPTAIN MORRIS. 129
Come, thou soul-reviving cup ;
Try thy healing art ;
Stir the fancy's, visions up,
And warm my wasted heart.
Touch with freshening tints of bliss
Memory's fading dream.
Give me, while thy lip I kiss.
The heaven that's in thy stream.
As the witching fires of wine
Pierce through Time's.past reign.
Gleams of joy that once were mine.
Glimpse back on life again.
And if boding terrors rise
O'er my melting mind,
Hope still starts to clear my eyes,
And drinks the tear behind.
Then life's wintry shades new drest,
Fair as summer seem ;
Flowers I gather from my breast.
And sunshine from the stream.
As the cheering goblets pass.
Memory culls her store ;
Scatters sweets around my glass,.
And prompts my thirst for more.
Far from toils the great and grave
To proud ambition give.
My little world kind Nature gave.
And simply bade me live.
On me she fix'd an humble art.
To deck the Muse's groves.
And on the nerve that twines my heart
The touch of deathless love.
Then, rosy god, this night let me
Thy cheering, magic share ;
Again let hope-fed Fancy see
Life's picture bright and fair.
Oh ! steal from care my heart away.
To sip thy healing spring ;
And let me taste'that bliss to-day
To-morrow may not bring.
130 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The friendship of the Duke of Norfolk and Charles
Morris extended far beyond the Steaks meetings ; and the
author of the Clubs of London tells us by what means the
Duke's regard took a more permanent form. It appears
that John Kemble had sat very late at one of the night
potations at Norfolk- House. Charles Morris had just
retired, and a very small party remained in the dining-
room, when His Grace of Norfolk began to deplore,
somewhat pathetically, the smallness of the stipend upon
which poor Charles was obliged to support his family;
observing, that it was a discredit to the age, that a man who
had so long gladdened the lives of so many titled and
opulent associates, should be left to struggle with the
difficulties of an inadequate income at a time of life when
he had no reasonable hope of augmenting it. Kemble
listened with great attention to the Duke's jeremiade : but
after a slight pause, his feelings getting the better of his
deference, he broke out thus, in a tone of peculiar emphasis : —
" And does your Grace sincerely lament the destitute con-
dition of your friend, with whom you have passed so many
agreeable hours ? Your Grace has described that condition
most feelingly. But is it possible, that the greatest Peer of
the realm, luxuriating amidst the prodigalities of fortune,
should lament the distress which he does not relieve ? the
empty phrase of beneyolence^-the mere breath and vapour
of generous sentiment, become no man ; they certainly are
unworthy of your Grace. Providence, my Lord Duke, has
placed you in a station where the wish to do good and the
doing it are the same thing. An annuity from your over-
flowing coffers, or a small nook of land, clipped from your
unbounded domains, would scarcely be felt by your Grace ;
but you would be repaid, my Lord, with usury ; — with tears
of grateful joy ; with prayers warm from a bosom which
your bounty will have rendered happy."
Such was the substance of Kemble's harangue. Jack
Bannister used to relate the incident, by ingeniously putting
CAPTAIN MORRIS. 131
the speech into blank verse, or rather the species of prose
into which Kemble's phraseology naturally fell when he was
highly animated. But, however expressed, it produced its
effect. For though the Duke (the night was pretty far gone,
and several bottles had been emptied)' said notiiirag- ^t the
time, but stared with some astonishment at so unexpected a
lecture J riot a month elapsed before Charles Morris was
invested with a beautiful retreat at Brockham, in Surrey,
upon the bank of the river Mole, and at the foot of the noble
range of which Box Hill forms the most picturesque point.
The Duke went to his rest in 1815. Morris continued to
be the laureate of the Steaks until the. year 1831, when he
thus bade adieu, to the Society in his eighty-sixth year ; —
Adieu to the world I where I gratefully own,
Few men more delight or more comfort have known :
To an age far beyond mortal lot have I trod
The path of pure health, that best blessing of God ;
And so mildly devout Nature temper'd my frame,
Holy patience still sooth'd when Adversity came ;
Thus vrithmind ever cheerful, and tongue never tired,
I sung the gay strains these sweet blessings inspired ; ;
And by blmding light mirth with a moral-mix'd stave.
Won the smile of the gay and the nod of the grave.
But at length the dull languor of mortal decay
Throws a weight on its spirit too light for its clay ; r
And the fancy, subdued, as the body's opprest.
Resigns the faint flights that scarce wake in the breast.
A painfiil memento that man 's not to play
A game of light ffrlly throughXife's sober day ;
. A just admonition, though viewed with regret,
■ Still blessedly offered, though thanklessly met.
Too long, I perhaps, like the many who stray,
Have upheld the gay themes of the Bacchanal's day ;
But at length Time has brought, what it ever will bring,
A shade that excites more to sigh than to smgii
In this close of Life's chapter, ye high-fivour'd few,
Take my Muse's last tribute — this painful adieu 1
Take my w3sh, that your bright social circle on earth
For ever may flourish in concord and mirti:
K 2
132 CtUB LIFE OF LONDON.
For the long yeats of joy I have shared at your board, i
Take the thanks of my heart — yirhere ,they long have been stored ;
And remember, vi-hen Time tolls my last parting (cnell.
The " old bard " dropp'd a tear, and then bade yfr;— Farewell 1
In 1835,, however, Mprris revisited the Society, wjio then
presentedhim with a large silver bowl,,appropriatelyinscribed,
as a testimonial of- their a^ectionate ssteem ; aivd th.e vene-
rable bard thus addressed the brotherhood : —
Well, I'm come, my dear fMends,' your kind wish to obey.
And drive, by light mirth, all Life's shadows away ;
And turn the heart's sighs to the throbbings of joy.
And a grave aged man to a merry old boy.
'Tis a bold transformation, a daring design.
And not past the power of Friendship and Wine ; ' ' '
And I trust that e'en yet this warm mixture will raise
A brisk spark of light o'er the shade of my days.
Shortly after this effusion, he thus alluded to the treasured
gift of the Society :—
When my spirits are low, for relief and delight,
I still place your splendid Memorial in sight ;
And call to my Muse, when care strives to pursue,
"Bring the Steaks to my Memory and the' Bowl to my view."
When brought, at its sight all the blue devils fly,
And a world of gay visions rise bright to my eye ; .
Cold Fear Shuns the cup where warm Meinory flows ;
And Grief, shamed by Joy, hides his budget of Woes.
'Tis a pure holy fount, where for ever I find
A sure double charm for the Body and Mind ;
For I feel while I'm cheer'd by the drop that I lift, r
I'm Blest by the Motive that hallows the Gift.
How nicely teiftpered is this chorus to our Bard's " Life's
a Fable:"—
Then roll aloi^, , my lyric song ;
It seasons well the table.
And tells: a truth to Age and Youth,
That Life's a fleeting fable.
Thus Mirth and Woe the brighter show
From rosy wine's reflection ; - ' ^
CAPTAIN MORRIS. 133
From first to last, this truth hath past-;-
; , 'Twas wia4e for Care's correction.
Noyr what those think who water drinlc,.
Of these old rules of Horafce,
I sha Vt now Show ; but this I know, •
His rules do well for -^"n"".
Old Horace, when he dippd his pen,
. 'Tw^s wine he had resort to ;
He chose for use Falernian juice,.
As I choose old Oporto ;
At everjr boiit an odecSme out, " '
Yet Bacchus kept him twinkling ;
As well aware more .fir^ was there.
Which wa^itfd but the sprinkling.
At Biockham, Mdn;i? "drank thei pure pleasures of the
rural life," long after many a gay Ijght of his own time had
flickered out, and becpme^almost forgotten. At length, his
course ebbed away, July 11, 1838, in his ninety'third year;
his, illness, which was only of four days, was internal inflam-
mation. The attainment qf so great an age, and the
recollection of* Morris's associations, show him to have pre-
sented a rare combmation of mirth and prudence. He
retained his gaieti de cmur tp the last ; so that with equal
truth he remonstrated :
' When Life charms' my heart, must I Wndly be told,
. J.'m too gay and too happy for one that's so old ?
The venerable Batd's remains rest near the east end of
his parish church of Betchwortb, in the burial ground ; the
grave is simply -marked by a head and foot-stone, with an
inscription of three or -four lines :• he who had sung the
praises of so many choice spririts, has not here a stanza to
his own memory : such is, to some extent, the natural
sequitur with men who outlive: their companions. Morris
was; staid and grave in his general deportment. Moore, in
bis Diary, has this odd note : " Lin<31ey describes Colman
at ■ the . Beefsteak Club quite drunk, making extraordinary
noise while Captain Morris was singing, which disconcerted
134 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
the latter (who, strange to say, is a very grave, steady
person) considerably." Yet, Morris could unbend, witii
great simplicity and feeling. We have often met him, in
his patriarchal "blue and buff" (blue coat and buff waist-
coat), in his walks about the lovely country in which he
resided. Coming, one day, into the bookseller's shop, at
Dorking, there chanced to be deposited a pianoforte ; when
the old Bard having looked around him, to see there were
no strangers present, sat down to the instrument, and played
and sang with much spirit the air of " The girl I left behind
me :" yet he was then past his eightieth year. "
Morris's ancient and rightful office at the Steaks was to
make the ^unch, and it was amusing to see Jiim at his
laboratory at the sideboard, stocked with the various pro-
ducts that enter into the composition of that nectareous
rtiixture : then smacking an elementary glass or two, and
giving a significant' nod, the fiat, of its excellence; and
what could exceed the ecstasy with which he filled the
glasses that thronged around the' bowl; joying over its
mantlinjg beauties, and. distributing the fascinating draught
That flames and dances in its crystal bound ?
" Well has our laureate earned his wreath," (says the author
of The Clubs of London, who was often a participator in
these delights). "At that table, his best songs have been
s;j.ngj for that table his best songs were written. His
allegiance has been undivided. Neither hail, nor shower,
nor snowstorm have kept him away : no engagement, no
invitation seduced him from it I have seen him there,
' outwatching the bear,' in his seventy- eighth year; for as
yet nature had given no signal of decay in frame or faculty ;
but you saw him in a green and -vigorous old age, tripping
mirthfully along the downhUl of existence, without languor,
or gout, or any of the privileges exacted by time for the
mournful privilege of living. His face is still: resplendent
BEEFSTEAK CLUBS. 135
with cheerfulness. 'Die when you will, Charles,' said
Curran to him, ' you will die in your youth.'"
Beef-Steak Clubs.
There are other Beef-steak Clubs to be chronicled;
Pynej in his rF;«^ and Walnuts, says : " At the same time
the social Club flourished in England, and about the yeai
1 749, a Beef-steak Club was established at the Theatre Royal,
Dublin, of which the celebrated Mts. Margaret Woffiiigton
was president. It was begun by Mr. Sheridan, but on a
very different plaii to that in London, no theatrical per-
former, save on& female, being admitted; and though eallea
a Club, the manager alone bore all the expenses. The
plan was, by making a list of about fifty or sixty persons,
chiefly noblemen and members of Parliament, who were
invited. Usually about half that number attended, and
dined in the manager's apartment in the theatre. There
was no female adniitted but this Peg' Wcffington, so d^nomi-
tiated by all her contemporaries, who was seated in agreat
chair at the head of the table, and elected president for the
season. •
"'It will readily be believed,' says Mr. -Victor,- in his
History of the Theatres, who was joint proprietor of the
house, ' that a club where there were good accommodations,
such a lovely p-esident, full of wit and spirit, and nothing to
pay, must soon grow remarkably fashionable.' It did so ;
but we find it subsequently caused the theatre to" be p'uUed
to pieces about the inanager's head.
"Mr. Victor says of Mrs. Margaret, "she possessed
captivating charms as a jovial, witty bottle companion, but
few remaining as a mere female.' We have Dr. Johnsbii's
testiinony, however, who had often gossipped with Mrs.
Margaret in the green-room at old Drury, more in the lady's
favour.
"This author (Victor) says, speaking of the Beef-Steak i
136 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Club, 'It was a dub of ancient institution- in every theatre
when the principal performers dined one day in the week
together (generally Saturday), and authors and other geniuses
were admitted members.'"
The Club in Ivy-lane, of which Dr. Johnson was a
member, was joriginally a Beef-s,teak Club, . , ,
There was also a political Club, called " the Rump Steak,
or, Liberty Club," in existence in, 1733-4. . The members
were in ea,ger opposition to, Sir Robert .Walpole.
At the Bell TayerUj Church-row, Houndsditch, was held
the Beef-steak Club, instituted by Mr. Beard, Mr. Dunstall,
Mr. Woodward, Stoppalear, , Bencroft, Qifford, etc. — -See
Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewis, .yo\. ii. p.. 1,96. , - .
Club at Tom's Cofifee-house.
Covent-garden has lost many of its hpuses " studded with
anecdote and history;" and tlie mutations among what
Mx. Thackeray affectionately called its "rich cluster of
brown taverns " are sundry and manifest. Its coffee-houses
proper have almost disappeaxed, even in name. Yet, in
the last century, in one short street of Covent-Gardeft —
Russell-street — flourished three of the most celebrated
coffee-houses in the metropolis : Will's, Button's, and Tom's.
The reader need not be reminded of Will's, with Dryden,
the Tatler apd Spiectator, a,nA its wits' room on the first
floor ; or Button's, with its lion's head letter-box, and the
young poets in the back room. Tom's, No. 17, on the
iiorth side of Russell-street, and of a somewhat later date,
was taken down in 1865. The premises remained with but
little alteration, long after they ceased to be a coffee-house.
It was named after Its origina;l proprietor, Thomas West,
who, Nqv. 26, 1722, threw himself, in a delirium, from the
second-floor .window into the street, and died immediately
(Historical Register for r722). The upper portion of the
premises was the coffee-house, under which lived T. Lewi's,
the bookseller, the original pubhsher, in r7ii, of Pope's
CLUB AT TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 137
Essay on Criticism. The usual frequenters upstairs may be
judged of by the following passage in the Journey through
England, first edit., 17 14 : — "After the play, the best com^
pany generally go to Tom's and Will's coffee-houses, near
adjoining, where there is playing at piquet and the best
conversation till midnight. Here you will see blue and
green ribbons, with stars, sitting familiarly and talking with
the same freedom as if they had left their quality and
degrees of distance at home ; and a stranger tastes with
pleasure the universal liberty of speech of the English
nation. And in all the coffee-houses you have not only the
foreign prints, but several English ones, with the foreign
occurrences, besides papers of morality and party disputes."
Such were the Augustan delights of, a memorable coffee-
house of the reign of Queen Anne. Of this period is a
recollection of Mr. Grignon, sen., having seen the "balcony
of Tom's crowded with npjjlemen in their stars and garters,
drinking their tea and coffee exposed to the people." We
find an entry in Walpole's Letters, 1745 : — "A gentlenian, I
don't know who, the other night at Tom's coffee-house, said,
on Lord Baltimore refusing to corne into the Admiralty
because Lord Vere Beaucjerk had tiie pi;ecedence, ' it put hirti
in mind of Pinkethman's petition in the Spectator, where he
complains that formerly he used to act second chair in " Dio-
cletian," but now he was reduced to dance fifth flower-pot.' "
In 1764 there appears to have been formed here, by a
guinea subscription, a Club of nearly 700 members — the
nobility, foreign ministers, gentry, and men of genius of the
age ; the large room on the first floor being the card-room.
The Club flourished, so that in 1768, "having considerably
enlarged itself of late," Thomas Haines, the then proprietor,
took in the front room of the next house westward as a
coffee-room. The front room of No. 17 was then appro-
priated exclusively as a card-room for the subscription club,
each member paying one guinea annually; the adjoining
apartment being used as a conversation-room. The sub-
138 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
scription-books are before us, and here we find in the long
list .the names of , Sir Thonias Robinson, Bart., who was
designated " Long Sir Thomas Robinson," to distinguish him
from his namesake, Sir, Thomas Robinson, created Lord
Grantham in 1761. "Long Tom," as the former was
familiarly called, was a Commissioner of Excise and
Governor of Barbadoes. He was a sad bore, especially to
the Duke of, Newcastle, the minister, who resided in
Lincoln's Inn Fields. However, he gave rise to some
smart things. Lord Chesterfield being asked by, the latter
Baronet to write some verses upon him, immediately
produced this epigram : —
Unlike my subject now shall:be my song,
It shall lie wittyi and it shan't be long.
Long Sir Thomas distinguished himself in this odd
manner. When pur Sovereign had not dropped the folly
of calling himself " King of France," and it was customary
at the Coronation of an EngUsh Sovereign to have fictitious
Dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy to represent the vassalage
of France, Sir Thomas was selected to fill the second mock
dignity at. the coronation of George III., to which Churchill
alludes in his Ghost; but he assigns a wrong dukedom to
Sir Thomas :
Could Satire not (though doubtful since
Whether he plumbel: is or prince)
Tell of a simple Knight's advance,
To be a doughty peer of France ?
Tell how he did a dukedom gain,
And Robinson was Aquitain.
Of the two Sir Thomas Robinsons, one was tall and thin,
the other short and fat: "I can't imagine," said Lady
Townsend, "why the one should be preferred to the other;
I see but little difference hetween them : the one is as broad
as the other is long."
Next on the books is Samuel Foote, who, after the
decline of Tom's, was mostly to be seen at the Bedford.
CLUB AT TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 139
Then comes Arthur Murphy, lately called to the Bar;
David Garrick, who then lived in SouthamptonrStreet
(though he was not a clubbable man) ; John Beard, the fine
tenor singer; John Webb; Sir Richard Glynne; Robert
Gosling, the banker ; Colonel Eyre, of Marylebone ; Earl
Percy; Sir John Fielding, the justice; Paul Methuen, of
Corsbam; Richard Clive; the great Lord Cliye;. the
eccentric Duke of Montagu; Sir Fletcher Norton, the ill-
mannered ; Lord Edward Bentinck ; Dr. Samuel Johnson ;
the celebrated Marquis of Granby ; Sir F. B. Delaval, the
friend of Foote; William Tooke, the solicitor; the Hon.
Charles Howard, sen. ; the Duke . of Northumberland ; Sir
Francis Gosling; the Earl of Anglesey ; Sir George Brydges
Rodney (afterwards Lord. Rodney) ; Peter Burrel; Walpole
Eyre ; Lewis Mendez ; Dr. Swinney ; Stephen Lushington ;
John Gunning; Henry Brougham, father of Lord Brougham.;
Dr. Macnamara ; Sir John Trevdyan ; Captain Donellan ; Sir
W. Wolseley; Walter Chetwynd; Viscount Gage, etc.; —
Thomas Payne, Esq., of Leicester House; Dr. Schomberg,
of Pall-Mall; George Colman, the dramatist, then living in
Great' Queen Street; Dr. Dodd, in Southampton-rowi;
"James Payne, the architect,. Salisbury-street^ whiqh he rebuilt ;
William Bowyer, the printer, Bloomsbury-square ; Count
Bruhl, the Polish Minister; Dr. Goldsmith, Temple (1773),
etc. • Many a noted name in the list of 700 is very sugges-
tive of the gay isociety of the period. Among the Club
musters, Samuel Foote, Sir Thomas Robinson, and Dr. Dodd
are very frequent : indeed. Sir Thomas seems to have been
something like a proposor-general..
Tom's appears to have been a general Lcoffee-hpuse ; for in
the parish books of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, is the entry ,:
. ... £. s. d.
i(fi Dishes of chocolate . . . ..'.". I 3 o
- 34jelleys . . :. •,.017 .0
Biscuits 023
Mr. Haines, the landlord, was succeeded by his son,
140 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Thomas, whose daughter is livings at the age of eighty-four,
and' possesses a portrait, by. Dance, of the elder Haines,
who,'froin his polite addressywas called among the Club
" Lord Chesterfield." The above lady has also a portrait,
in oil, of the younger Haines^ by Grignon;
The coffee-house business closed in 1814, about which
time the premises were first occupied ' by Mr. William Till,
the numismatist. The card-room remained in its original
condition; "Andhfere," wrote Mr. Till, many years since,
" the tables on which I exhibit my coins are those which
were used by the exalted characters whose names are ex-
tracted from books of the 'Club, still in possession of the
proprietress of the house." On the death of Mr. Till, Mr.
Webster succeeded to the tenancy and collection of coins
and medals, which he removed to No. 6, Henrietta-street,
shortly before the old premises in Russell-street were taken
down. He possesses, ,by marriage with, the grand-daughter
of the second Mr. Haines, the old Club books, as well as
the curious memorial, the snuff-box of the Clubrroom. It is
of large size, and fine tortoiseshell ; upon th^ lid, ; in high
relief, in silver, are the portraits of Charles I. and Queen
Anne; the Boscobel oak, with Charles II. amid its branches;
and at the foot of the tree, on a silver plate-, is inscribed
Thomas Haines. At Will's the small wits grew conceited if
they dipped but into Mr. Dryden's snuffbox ; and at Tom's
the box may have enjoyed a similar shrine-like reputation.
It is nearly all that remains of the old coffee-house in Covent
Garden, save the recollection of the names of the interesting
personages who once thronged its rooms in stars and garters,
but who bore more intellectual distinctions to entitle them to
remembrance. . , ^ ; jii , . . ,
The King of Clubs.
This ambitious title was given to a Club set on foot about
the year 1801. Its founder was Bobus Smith, the brother
of the great Sydney Smith. The Club at first consisted of a
THE KING OF CLUBS. 14!
small knot of lawyers, a few literary characters, and visitors
generally introduced by those who took the, chief, part in the
conversation, and seemingly selected for the faculty of being
good listeners.
The King of Clubs sat on Saturday of each month, at the
Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the. Strand, which, at that
time, was a nest of boxes, each, containing its Club, and
affording excellent cheer,. though, latterly desecrated by in-
different dinners and very, questionable wine. The Club
was a grand talk, the, prevalent topics being books and
authors; politics quite; excluded, Bobus Smith was a con-
vivial member in every respect but that of wine ; he was but
a frigid worshipper, of Bacchus, but he had great humour
and a species of wit, that revelled amidst the strangest and
most grotesque combinations. , His manner was somewhat
of the bow-wow kind ; and when he pounced upon a disputa-
tious and dull blockhead, he made sad work of him.
Then there was Richard Sharp, a partner of Boddington's
West India house, who subsequently, sat in Parliament for
Port Arlington, in Ireland. He was a thinker and a reasoner,
and occasionally controversial,: buti overflowed with useful
and agreeable knowledge, and an unfailing stream of de-
lightful information. He was . celebrated for his conversa-
tional talents, and hence called " Conversation Sharp ;" and
he often had for his guest Sir James Mackintosh, with
whom he lived, in habits .(rf intimacy. Mr. Sharp published
a volume of Letters and Essays in Frose and Verse, of which
a third edition appeared in, 1834. Sharp was confessedly
the first of the King of Clubs. He indulged, but rarely, in
pleasajntryj but. when anything of the kind escaped him, it
was sure to tell... One evening, at the club, there was a talk
about Tweddel, .then a student in.the; Temple, who had
greatly distinguished himself at . Cambridge, and was the
Senior Wrangler and medalist, of his year. Tweddel was not
a little intoxicated with his University .triumphs ; which led
Sharp to remark, " Poor fellow 1- he will soon find that his
14^ CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Cambridge medal will not pass as current coin in London."
Other frequent attendants were Scarlett (afterwards Lord
Abinger) ; Rogers, the poet ; honest John Allen, brother of
the bluest of the blues. Lady Mackintosh ; M. Dumont, the
French emigrant, who would sometimes recite his friend the
Abbd de Lisle's verses, with interminable perseverance, in
spite of yawns and other symptoms of dislike, which his own
politeness (for he was a highly-bred man) forbade him to
interpret into the absence of it in others.
In this respect, however, he was outdone by Wishart, who
was nothing but quotations, and whose prosing, when he
did converse, was like the torpedo's touch to all pleasing
and lively converse. Charles Butler, too, in his long life,
had treasured up a considerable assortment of reminiscences,
which, when once set going, came out like a torrent upon
you; it was a sort of shower-bath, that inundated you the
moment you pulled the string.
Curran, the boast of the Irish bar, came to the King of
Clubs, during a short visit to London; there he met
Erskine, but the meeting was not congenial. Curran gave
some odd sketches of a Serjeant Kelly, at the Irish bar,
whose whimsical peculiarity was an inveterate b^bit of
drawing conclusions directly at variance with his premises.
He had acquired the.name of. Counsellor. .Therefore. Curran
said he was a perfect human personification of a w« j^^wiVzar.
For instance, meeting Curran on Sunday, near St. Patrick's,
he said to him, " The Archbishop 'gave us an excellent dis^
course this morning. It was well, written and well delivered,
therefore, I shall make a point of being -at the Four Courts
to-morrow at ten." At another time, observing to a person
whom he met in the street, " What a delightful morning this
is for walking !" he finished his remark on the weather by
saying, "Therefore I will go home as soon as I can, and
Btir out no more the wliole day;" His speeches in Court
were interminable, and his tKereforje kept him going on,
though; every one thought he had done. "This is so clear
WALTERS CLUB. 143
a point, gentlemen," he would tell the jury, "that I am con-
vinced you felt it to be so the very moment I stated it. I
should pay your understandings but a poOr compliment to
dwell on it for a minute ; therefore, I will now proceed to
explain it to you as minutely as possible."
Curran seemed to have no very profound respect for the
character and talents of Lord Norbiiry. Curran went down
to Carlow on a special retainer ; it was in a case of eject-
ment A new Court-house had been recently erected, and
it was found extremely inconvenient, froni the echo, which
reverberated the mingled voices of judge, 'counsel, crier, to
such a degree, as to produce constant 'confusion, and great
interruption of business. Lord Norbury had been, if possible,
more noisy that morning than ever. Whifct he-was^ arguing
a point with the counsel, and talking very loudly, an ass
brayed vehemently from the street, adjoining- the Court-
house, to the instant interruption of the Chief-Justice,
" What noise is that ?" exclaimed his Lordship. " Oh, my
Lord," retorted Curran, " it is merely the echo of the
Court."
Watier's Clut.
This Club was ther grfeat Macao gambling-house of a very
short period. Mr. Thomas Raikes, who understood all its
mysteries, describes it as very genteel, adding that no one
ever quarrelled there. ' "The Club did not endtire for twelve
years altogether ; the pace was too quick to last : it died a
natural death in 18 19, "froni the paralysed state of its mem-
bers ; the house was then taken by a set of blacklegs, who
instituted a common bank for gambling. To form an idea
of the ruin produced by this short-lived establishment among
men whom I have so intimately known, a cursory glance to
the past suggeststhe following melancholy list, which onljr
forms a part of its deplorable results. . . . None of the dead
reached the average age of man."
Among the members -was Bligh, a notorious madman, of
144 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
whom Mr. Raikes relates : — " One evening at the Macao
table, when the play was very deep, Brummell having lost a
considerable stake, affected, in his farcical way, a very tragic
air, and cried put,,' Waiter, bring, me a flat candlestick and
a pistol.' Upon which Bligh, who was sittipg opposite to
him, calmly produced . two loaded pistols from his coat
pocket, which he placed on the table, and said, ' Mr.
Brummell, if you are really desirous to put a period to your
existence, I am extremely happy to offer you the means
without troubling the waiter.' The effect upon those present
may easily be imagined, at finding themselves in the com-
pany of a known madman who had . loaded weapons about
him.''
Mr. Canning at the Clifford-street Club.
There was in the last century a deba,ting Club, wliich
boasted for a short time, a brighter assemblage of talent
than is usually found to fl.ourish in societies of this descrip-
tion. Its meetings, which took place once a month, were
held at the Clifford-street Coffee-house, at the comer
of Bond-street. The debaters were chiefly Mackintosh,
Richard Sharp, a Mr. OUyett Woodhouse ; Charles Moore,
son of the celebrated, traveller ; and Lord, Charles, Town-
shend, fourth son of the facetious and eccentric Marquis.
The great primitive principles of civil government were
then much discussed, It was before ,the French Revolu;
tion ;had " brought death into the world and. all its woe."
At the Clifford-street Society, Canning generally took
" the liberal side " of the above questions. His earliest
prepossessions are well known to have inclined to this side;
but he evidently considered the Society rather as a school
of rhetorical exercise, where he might acquire the use 0/
his weapons, than a forum, where the serious professions of
opinions, , and a consistent adherence to them, could be
fairly expected of him. pne evening, , the question for
debate was "the justice, and expediency of resuming the
THE GlIFFORD-STREET CLUB. 145
ecclesiastical property of Frdnce." Before: the debate
began, Canning had taken some pains to ascertain on
which side the majority of the mernbers seemed inclined to
speak J and finding that they were generally in favour of
"the resumption, he expressed his fears that theunanimity
of sentiment would spoil the discussion ; so, he volunteered
to speak against it. He did so, and it was a speech of con-
siderable power, chiefly in reply to the opener, who in a set
discourse of some length, had asserted the revocable con-
ditions of the property of the church, which, being created,
he said, by the state, remained ever after at its disposition.
Canning denied the proposition that ecclesiastical property
was the creature oi the state. He contended that though
it might be so in a new government, yet, speaking his-
torically, the great as well as the lesser ecclesiastical fiefs
were coeval with the crown of France, frequently strong
enough to maintain fierce and not unequal conflicts with it,
and certaihfy not in their origin emanations from its bounty.
The church, he said, came well dowered to the state, who
was now suing for a divorce, in order to plunder her pin-
money. He contended that the church property stood
upon the same basis, and ought to be protected by thei
same sanctions, as private property. It was originally, he-
said, accumulated from the successive donations with which,
a pious benevolence sought to enrich the fountains, from-
which spiritual comfort ought to flow to the wretched,
the poor, the forsaken. He drew an energetic sketch of
Mirabeau, the proposer of the measure, by whose side,
he remarked, the worst characters in history, the Cleons,
the Catilines, the Cetheguses, of antiquity, would brighten :
into virtue. He said that the character of the lawgiver-
tainted the law. It was proffered to the National Assembly^
by hands hot and reeking from the cells of sensuality and
vice ; it came from a brain inflamed and distended into
frenzy by habitual debauchery. These are, of course, but
faint sketches of this very early specimen of Canning as
Missing Page
Missing Page
148 CLVB LIFE OF LONDON.
most of his time over a bottle, he Vvas, in derision, Said' to
belong.
' " The Everlasting Club consists of an hundred members,
who divide the whole twenty-four hours among them in such
a manner that the Club sits day and night, from one end of
the year to another : no party presuming to rise till they are
relieved by those who are in course to succeed them. By
this means, a member of the Everlasting Club never wants
company ; for though he is not upon duty himself, he is sure
to find some who are ; so that if he be disposed' to take a
whet, a nooning, an evening's draught, or a bottle after mid-
night, he igoes to the Club, and finds a knot of friends to
his mind.
" It is a maxim in this Club that the Steward never dies ;
for as they succeed one another by way of rotation, no man
is to quit the great elbow-chair, which stands at the upper
end of the table, till his successor is ready to fill it ; inso-
much that there has not been a sede vacante in their
memory.
" This Club was instituted towards the end; or, as some
of them say, about the middle of the Civil Wars, and con-
tinued with interruption till the time of the Great Fire,
which burnt them out and dispersed them for several weeks.
The Steward all that time maintained his post till he had like
to have been blo'wn up with a neighbouring house, which
was demolished in order to stop the fire : and would not
leave the chair at last^ till he had emptied the bottles upon
the table, and received repeated directions from the Club to
withdraw himself. This Steward is frequently talked of in
the Club; and looked upon by every member of it as a
greater man than the famous captain mentioned in my Lord
Clarendon, who was birnit in his ship, because he would
not quit it 'without orders. It is said that towards the close
of 1700, being the great year of jubilee, the Club had it
under consideration whether they should break up or con-
tinue their session ; but after many speeches and debates, it
ECCENTRIC CLUBS.
149
was at length agreed to sit out the other century. This
resolution passed in a general club nemine contradicente.
" It appears, by their books in general^ that, since their
first institution, they have smoked fifty tons of tobacco,
drank thirty thousand butts of ale, one thousand hogsheads
of red port, two hundred barrels of, brandy, and one kilder-
kin of small been There had been likewise a great
consumption of cards. It is also said that they observe the
law in Ben Jonson'sCIub, which orders the fire to be always
kept in (focus perennis esto), as well for the convenience of
lighting their pipes as to cure the dampness of 'the club-
room. They have an old woman, in the nature of a vestal,
whose business is to cherish and perpetuate the fire, which
bums from generation to, generation, and has seen the glass-
house fires in and out above an hundred times.!
" The Everlasting: Club treats all other clubs with an eye
of contempt, aivd talks even of the Kit-Cat and October as
a couple of upstarts. Their ordinary discourse, as much as
I have been able to learn of it, turns. altogether upon such
adventures as have passed in their own assembly ; of
members who have taken the glass in their turns for a week
together, without stirring out of the Club.; of others who
have not missed their morning's draught for twenty years
together ; sometimes they speak in rapture of a run of ale
in King ■ Charles's reign ; and sometimes reflect with
astonishment upon games at whist, which have been
miraculously recovered by members of the Society, when in
all human probability the case was desperate.
" They delight in several old catches, which they sing at
all hours, to encourage one another to moisten their clay,
and grow immortal by drinking, with many other edifying
exhortations of the like nature.
"There are four general Clubs held in a year, at which
time they fill up vacancies, appoint waiters, confirm the old
fire-maker or elect a new one, settle contributions for coals,
pipes, tobacco, and other necessaries.
ijo CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
,. '1 The senior member has outlived the whole Club twice
over,. and has been drunk with the grandfathers of some of
the sitting members-." -
The Lawyer's: Club is thus described in the Spectator,
No. 372 :^" This Club consists only of attorneys, and at
this meeting every one proposes to the board, the cause he
has then in hand, upon which each member gives his judg'
ment, according to the experience he has iilet with. If it
happens that any one puts a case of which they have no
precedent, it is noted down by their chief clerk. Will
Goosequill (who registers all their proceedirigs),i that one of
them may go with it next day to a counsel. This is;
indeed, commendable, and ought to be the 'pdncipal end of
their meeting ; but had you been there to. have heard them
relate their methods of managing a cause, their manner of
drawing out their bills, and, in short, their .arguments upon
the several ways of abusing, their clients, with the applause
iJiat is given to him who has done, it most artfully, you would
before now have given yout remarks, i '.'. . ■ ■.
'" They are so conscious that their discourses ought to be
kept a -secret, that -they are- very cautious of admitting any
person who is not in the profession. When any who are not of
the law are let in^ the person who introduces him says, he is a
very honest gentleman, and he is taken, as their cant is, to pay
costs." The writer adds, "that he is admitted upon the recom-
mendation of one of their principals, as a very honest, good-
natured fellow, that will never be in a plot, and only desires
to drink his bottle and smoke his pipe." : : :
77ie Little Club, we are told in the Guardian, No* 91,
began by isending invitations to those not exceeding five feet
in height to repair to the assembly, but many sent excuses,
or pretended a non-application. They proceeded to fit up
a- room for their accommodation, and in the first place had
all the chairs, stools, and tables removed, which had served;
the more bulky portion of mankind for many. years, previous
to which they laboured under very great disadvantages. The •
ECCENTRIC CLUBS. 151
Fresideat's ■whole person was, sunk in the elbow-chair, and
when his ai-ms were spread over it, he appeared (to the great
lessening of his dignity) like a child in a go-cart. It was
also so wide in the seg,t,j?is to give a, wag occasion of saymg,
that " notwithstanding the President sat in it, there was a
sede vacante." " The. table was so high, that one who came
by change to the door, ' seeing our chins just above the
pewter dishes, took us for a circle of men that sat ready to
be shaved, and sent in half-a-dozen of barbers. Another
time, one of the Club spoke contumeliously of the. President,
imagining he had been absent, when he was only ieclipsed by
a flask of Florence, which stood on the table in a parallel
line before hig face. We therefore .new-fi^mished the room,
in all respects propprtionably. to us, and had the door made
lower, so as to admit no man above five feet high without-
brushing his foretop; which, whoever does, , is utterly un-
qualified to git amongst us." , :
Mr. Daniel, in Y^s^Merrie England in the. Olden Time, has
dollect^d a farther list of Clubs eifisting in London in 1790.,
He enumerates the following : — The Odd Fellows' Club ;
the Humbugs (held at the Bllie ifosts, in Covent-garden) ;
the Samsomc Society ; . the. Society pf Bucks ; the Purl
Drinkers ; the Society of Pilgrims (held at tlie Woojpack, in
the Kingsl^d-road). ; the" Thespian Club; the Great Bottle
Club'; the Je ne, sgai quoi Club (held at tlje Star and
Garter in^ Pall-Mall, and of which the Prince of Wales, and
the Dukes of York, Clarence, Orleans, Norfolk, Bedford,
etc., were meniberp) ; the Sons of the Thames Society ; the
Blue Stocking Club ; the No Pay No Liquor Club (held at
the Queen an<i Artichoke, in the Hampstead-foad, and of
which the ceremony, on a new member's introduction, was,
after his paying a fee on entrance of one shilling, that he
should wear a hat, throughout the' first evening, piade in the
shape of a quart pot, and drink to the health of Bis brother
members in a gilt goblet of ale) ; the Social Villagers (held
at the Bedford Arms, in Camden-town), etc. Of the Vil-
152 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
lagers of our time, Sheridan KnowleSj the dramatist, was a
jovial member.
Jacobite Club.
In the year 1854 a Correspondent of Notes and Queries
commmiicated to that journal the following interesting
reminiscenpes of a political Club, with characteristics pf the
reminiscent.
" The adherents of the Stuarts are now nearly extinct ;
but I recollect a few years ago an old gentleman in London,
who was then upwards of eighty years of age, and who was
a staunch Jacobite. I have heard him say that, when he
was a young man, his father belonged to a society in Alders-
gate-street, called ' The Mourning Bush j' and this Bush was
to be always in mourning until the Stuarts were restored."
A member of this society having been met in mourning
when one of the reigning family had died, was asked by one
of the members how it so happened ? His reply was, " that
he was not mourning for the dead, but for the living." The
old gentleman was father of the Mercers' Company, and his
brother of the Stationers' Company : they were bachelors,
and citizens of the old school, hospitable, liberal, and chari-
table. An instance occurred that the latter had a presen-
tation to Christ's Hospital- : he was applied to in behalf of a
person who had a large family ; but the father not being a
freeman, he could not present it to the son. He imme-
diately bought the freedom for the father, and gave the son
the presentation. This is a rare act. The brothers have
long gone to receive the reward of their goodness, and
lie buried in the cemetery attached to Mercers' Hall, Cheap-
side."
By the above statement, the Club appears to have taken
the name of the Mourning Bush Tavern, in Aldersgate, of
which we shall have more to say hereafter.
'53
The Wit,tinagemot of the Chapter Coffee-
house.
The Chapter Coffee-house, at the corner of Chapter-house
Court, on the south side of Paternoster-row, waSj in the last
century, noted as the resort of men of letters, and was famous
for its punch, pamphlets, and good supply of newspapers.
It was closed as a coffee-house in 1854, and then altered to
a tavern. Its celebrity, however, lay in the last century.
In the Connoisseur, January 31, 1754, we read: "The
Chapter Coffee-house is frequented by those- encouragers of
literature, and (as they are styled by an eminent critic) ' not
the worst judges of merit,' the booksellers. The conversa-
tion here naturally turns upon the newest publications; but
their criticisms are somewhat singular. When tliey, say a
good book, they do not mean to praise the style or sentiment,
but the quick and extensive sale of it That book is best
which sells most ; and if the demand for Quarles should be
greater than for Pope, he would have the highest place on
the rubric-post."
The house was much frequented by Chatterton, who writes
to his mother : " I am quite- familiar at the Chapter Coffee-
house, and know all the geniuses there.;" and to Mr. Mason:
" Send me whatever you would have published, and direct
forme, to be left at the Chapter. Coffee-house, Paternoster-
row." And, writing from " King's Bench for the present,'
May 14, 1770, Chatterton says : "A gentleman who knows
me at the Chapter, as an author, would have introduced me
as a companion to the young Duke of Northuniberland, in
his intended general tour. But, alas ! I spake no tongue
but my own."
Forster relates an anecdote of Oliver Goldsmith being
paymaster at the Chapter, for Churchill's friend, Lloyd, who,
in his careless, way, without a shilling to pay for the enter-
tainment, had invited him to sup with some friends of Grub-
street.
1S4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The Glub celebrity of the Chapter was, however, the
Wittmagemot, as the box in the, north-east comer of the
coffee-room was designated. Attiong its frequenters was
Alexander Stephens, editor of the Anmml £iograpfi.y and
Obituary, who died in 1824, and who left among his papers, .
printed in the Monthly Magazine^ as " Stephensianaj". his
recollections of the Chapter, which he frequented in 1797
to 1805, where,ihe tells us, he always met with intelligent,
company. We give his reminiscences almost in his own
words.
Early in the morning it was occupied by neighbours, who
were designated the Wet Pd^er Club, as it was their practice
to open the papers when brought in by the newsmen, and
read them-before they were dried by the waiter 5 a dry paper-
they viewed as a stale commodity. In the afternoon, another
party enjoyed the T^f^ evening papers; and (says Stephens)
it was these whom I met.
Dr. Buchan, author of " Domestic Medicine," generally
held a seat in this box ; and- though he was a Tory, he heard
the freest discussion with good humour, and commonly acted
as a moderator. His fine physiognomy, and his white hairs,
qualified him for this office. ' But the fixture in the box- was;
a-Mr. Hammond, a Cbventry manufacturer, who, evening
after evening, for nearly forty-five years, was always to be
found in his place, and during the entire -period was. much
distinguished for his severe and often able strictures on the
events of the day. He had thus debated through the days
of Wilkes, of the American war, and of the French' war, and
being on the side of liberty, was constantly in opposition.
His mode of arguing was Socratic, and he generally applied
to his adversary the reductio ad absurdum, creating bursts of
laughter.' ■ ' '
The registrar or chronicler of the box was a Mr. Murray,
an episcopal Scotch minister, who generally sat in one place
from nine in the riioming till nine at night; and was famous
for having read, at least once through, every morning and
THE WITTINAGEMOT, 155
evening paper published in . London during .the last thirty
years. His memory being good, he was appealed to when-
ever any point of fact withm the memory of man happened
to be disputed. , It was often remarked, however, that such
incessant daily, reading, did not tend to clear his views.
Among those, from, whom I constantly profited was Dr.
Berdmore, ,the master of the Charterhouse; Walker, the
rhetorician; and Dr.. Towers, the political and:' historical
writer. Dr. B. abounded in anecdote ; Walker (the Dic-
tionary-maker) • to the finest enunciation united the most
intelligent head Ij'eyer met with; arid Towers, /Over his half-
pint of Lisbon, -was sarcastic and lively, though' never deep.
Among , our constant visitors was the celebrated Dr.
George Fordyce, who, having much fashionable practice,
brought news which had. not generally transpired. He had
not the appearance of a man of genius, nor did he debate,
but he possessed sound information on aU subjects. He.
came to the Chapter after taking his wine, and stayed about
an hpw, or while he sipped a glass of brandy-and-water ; it
was then his habit to take another glass ' at th^ -London
Coffeehouse, and a third at, the Oxford, before; he returned
to his house in. Essex-street, Strand.
Dr,.Gower, the urbane and able physician of the Mid-,
dlesex, was another pretty constant visitor. And it was
gratifying to hear such, men as .Fordyce, Gower, and Buchan
in familiar chat Qn- subjects of medicine they seldom
agreed, and when siich were : started, they generally laughed
at one another's opinions. They seemed to consider Chap-
ter punch, or brandy-and-water, as aqua vita ; and, to the
credit of the house, better punch could not be found in
London. If any one complained of being indisposed,
the elder Buchan exclaimed, " Now let me prescribe for
you without a fee. Here, John or Isaac, bring a glass of
punch for Mr. - — r-, unless he likes brandy-and-water better.
Take that. Sir, and I'll warrant you you'll soon be welL
136 CLUB LIFE OP LONDON.
You're a peg too low ; you want stimulus, and if one glass
won't do, call for a second."
There was a growling man of the name of Dobson, who,
when his asthma permitted, vented his spleen upon both
sides; and a lover of absurd paradoxes, author of some
works of merit, but so devoid of principle, that deserted by
his friends, 'he would have- died for want, if Dr. Garthshore
had not placed him as a patient in the empty Fever Insti-
tution.
Robinson, the king of the booksellers, was frequently of
the party, as well as his brother John, a man of some talent :
and Joseph Johnson the friend of Priestly, and Paine, and
Cowper, and Euseli, came from St. Paul's Churchyard.
Phillips, then commencing his " Monthly Magazine," was
also on a keen look-out for recruits, and with his waistcoat
pocket full of guineas, to slip his enlistment-money into their
hand. Phillips, in the winter of 1795-6, lodged and boarded
at the Chapter, and not only knew the characters referred to
by Mr. Stephens, but many others equally original, from the
voracious glutton in politics, who waited for the wet papers
in the morning twilight, to the comfortless bachelor, who sat
till the fire was raked out at half-past twelve at night, all of
whom took their successive stations, like figures in a magic
lantern.
Alexander Chalmers, the workman of the Robinsons, and
through their introduction editor of many large books, also
enlivened the box with many sallies of wit and humour. He
always took much pains to be distinguished from his name-
sake, George, who, he used to say, carried "the leaden
mace," and he was much provoked whenever he happened
to be mistaken for his namesake.
Cahusac, a teacher of the classics ; M'Leod, a writer in
the newspapers : the two Parry's, of the " Courier," the
organ of Jacobinism ; and Captain Skinner, a man of elegant
manners, who personated our nation in the procession of
: TME wnTINAGEMOT. 1S7
Anacharsis Clootz, at Paris in 1793, were also in constant
attendance.
One Baker, once a Spitalfields manufacturer, a great talker,
and not less remarkable as an eater, was constant; bul^
having shot himself at his lodgings in Kirby-street, it was
discovered that, for some years, he had had no other meal
per day besides the supper which he took at the Chapter,
where there being a choice of viands at the fixed price
of one shilling, this, with a pint of porter, constituted his
daily subsistence, till, his last resources failing, he put an
end to himself.
Lowndes, the celebrated electrician, was another of our set,
and a facetious man. Buchan the younger, son of the Doctor,
generally came with Lowndes ; and though somewhat dog-
matical, yet he added to the variety and good intelligence of
our discussions, which, from the mixture of company, were
as various as the contents of the newspapers.
Dr. Busby, the musician, and an ingenious man, often
obtained a hearing, and was earnest in disputing with the
Tories. And. Macfarlane, the author of the " History of
George the Third," was generally admired for the soundness
of his views ; but this worthy man was killed by the pole of
a coach, during an election procession of Sir Francis Burdett,
from Brentford. Mr. W. Cook, author of "Conversation,"
constantly exemplified his own rules in his gentlemanly
manners and well-timed anecdotes.
Kelly, an Irish schoolmaster, and a man of polished man-
ners, kept up warm debates by his equivocating politics,
and was often roughly handled by Hammond and others,
though he bore his defeats wth constant good humour.
There was a young man named Wilson, who acquired the
distinction of Long-bow, from: the number of extraordinary
secrets of the haut ton, which he used to retail by the hour.
He was an amusing person, who seemed likely to prove an
acquisition to the Wittinagemot; but, having run up a score
of thirty or forty pounds, he suddenly absented himself.
158 CWB UPS OP LONDON.
Miss Brun^ the keeper of the Chapter, begfe-ed me, if I met
with Wilson, to tell him she would give him a receipt for the
past, and further credit to any- amount, if he would only re-
turn to the house ; "for," said she, " if he never paid us; he
was one of the best custoniers we ever -had, contriving, by
his stories and conversation, to keep a couple of boxes
crowded the whole hightj by which we made more punch
and more brandy-and-water, than from any other single
cause whatever."
Jacob, afterwards an alderman and M.P., wasa frequent
visitor, and then as remarkable for his heretical, as he was
subsequently for his orthodox, opinions in his speeches and
.writings.
Waithman, the active and eloquent Common Councilman,
often mixed with us, a,fld was ' always clear-headed and
agreeable. One James, who had made a large fortune by
vending tea, contributed many good anecdotes of the age of
Wilkes.
Several Stockbrokers visited us ; and among others of that
description was Mr. Blake, the banker of Lombard-street, a
remarkably intelligent old gentleman ; and there was a Mr.
Paterson, a North Briton, a long-headed' = speculator, who
taught mathematics to Pitt.
Some young men of talent came among us from time to
time; as Lovett, a militia officer; Hennell, a coal merchant,
and some others ; and these seemed likely to keep up the
party. But all things have an end: Dr. Buchan died; some
young sparks affironted our Nestor, Hammond, on which he
absented himself, after nearly fifty years' attendance; and the
noisy box of the Wittinagemot was, for some years pre-
viously to 1820, remarkable for its silence and dulness.
The two or three last times I was at the Chapter, I heard
no voice above a whisper;' and I almost shed a tear on
thinking of men, habits, and times gone by for ever !
We shall have more to say of the Chapter Coffee-house
in Vol. II.
IS9
The Roxburghe Gub Dinners.
The Roxburghe Club claims its foundation: from the
sale of the library of the late John, Duke of Roxburghe,
in 1812, which extended -to forty-one days following, with
a' supplementary catalogue beginning Monday, July 13,
with the exception of Sundays. Some few days before the
sale, the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibden^ who cl3,iiRed the
title of founder of the Club, suggested the holding of a con-
vivial meeting at the St. Alban's Tavern after the sale of
June 17th, upon which day was to besold the rarest lot,
"II Decamerone di Boccaccio," which produced 2260/.
The invitation ran thus : — "The honour of your company is
requested, to dine with the Roxburghe dinner, on 'Wednes-
day, the 17 th instajit." At the first dinner the number of
members was limited to twenty-fonr, which at the second
dinner was extended to thirty-one. The president of this
club was Lord Spencer; among ofher celebrated members
were the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of, BJandford,
Lord Morpeth, Lord Gower, Sir Mark Sykes, Sir Egerton
Brydges, Mr. (afterwafds) Baron Bolland, Mr. Dent, the
Rev. T. C. Heber, Rev. Rob. Holwell Carr, Sir Walter
Scott, etc. ; Dr. Dibdin, secretaty.
The avowed object of the Club was the reprinting of rare
,and ancient pieces of ancient literature; and, at one of the
-early meetings, "it was proposed and concluded. for each
member of the Club to reprint a scarce piece of ancient lore,
to be given to the members, one copy being on vellum for
the chairman, and only as many copies as members."
It may, however, be questioned whether "the dinners" of
the Club were not more important than the literature.
They were given at the St. Alban's, at Grillion's, at the Claren-
don, and the Albion taverns; the Amphytrions evincing sC
recherche taste in ih&' carte, as the Club did to their vellum
reprints. Of these entertainments some curious details have
i6o
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
been recorded by the late Mr. Joseph Haslewood, one of
the members, in a MS. entitled, " Roxburghe Reyels; or, an
Account of the Annual Display, culinary and festivous, inter-
spersed incidentally with Matters of Moment or Merri-
ment." This MS. was, in 1833, purchased by the Editor cif
the Athenaum, and a selection from its rarities was subse-
quently printed in that journal. Among the memoranda,
we find it noted that, at the second dinner, a few tarried,
with Mr. Heber in the chair, until, "on arriving at home,
the click of time bespoke a quarter to four." Among the
early members was the Rev. Mr. Dodd, one of the masters
of Westminster School, who, until the year 181 8 (when he
died), enlivened the Club with Robin-Hood ditties and
similar productions. The fourth dinner was given at Gril-
lion's, when twenty members assembled, under the chair-
manship of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes. The biU on this
occasion • amounted to 57/., or 2/. lyj-. per man; and the
twenty "lions" managed to dispose of drinkables to the
extent of about 33/. The reckoning by (trillion's French
waiter, is amusing: —
Dinner du 17-Juin 1815.
(Not legible) ,
Soder. . . .
Biere e Ail .
200
20
4
For la Lettre
Pour faire un prune
Pour un fiacre . .
Waiters
14
2
6
2
6
2
20 . . . . . .
Cesser
Deu sorte de Glasse . I
Glasse pour 6 . . . o 4 o
5 Boutelle de Cham-'
pagne 400
7 Boutelle deharmetage 5 5°
1 Boutelle de Hok . . o 15 o
4 Boutelle de Port ..160
4 Boutelle de Maderre .200
22 Boutelle de Bordeaux 15 80
2 Boutelle deBourgogne i 12 o
The anniversary of 1818 was celebrated at the Albion, in
Aldersgate-street : Mr. Heber was in the chair, and the
Rev. Mr. Carr vice, vice Dr. Dibdin. Although only fifteen
sat down, they seem to have eaten and drunk for the whole
SS 6
I 14
/S7 o o
&
Sf-
^ J
r .1
[□:
Old Slaughter's Coffee House, St. Mavtin's Lane.
Tom's Coffee House, Great Russell Street, Covent Garden.
THE ROXBURGHE CLUB DINNERS.
l6i
Club: it was, as Wordsworth says, "forty feeding like one;"
and the bill, at the conclusion of the night, amounted to 85/.
gx. 6(/. " Your cits," says Mr. Haslewood, " are the only
men for a feast ; and, therefore, behold us, like locusts,
tiavelHng to devour the good things of the land, eastward
oh ! At a little after seven, with our fancies much delighted,
we fifteen, sat down."
The bill of fare was as follows : —
Turtle Cutlets.
Boiled Chickens.
Saut^ of Haddock.
Turtle.
Tendrons of Lamb.
Tongue.
Turtle Fin.
FIRST COURSE.
Turtle.*
Turbot.
Turtle Fin.
Ham.
Chartreuse.
Turtle.
Fillets of Whitings.
John Dory. R. Chickens.
Fricandeau of Turtle.
Turtle.*
t+t Cold Roast Beef on Side Tables.
* These Tureens were removed for two dishes of White Bait.
SECOND COURSE.
Venison (2 Haunches).
Tart.
Jelly.
R. Quails.
Salade Italienne
THIRD COURSE.
Larded Poults.
Cheese Cakes.
Artichoke bottoms.
Prawns.
R. Leveret.
Cr^me Italienne.
Cabinet Pudding.
Peas.
R. Goose.
M
Tourt.
1 62
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The bill, as a specimen of the advantages of separate
charges, as well as on other accounts, may be worth pre-
serving : —
Bread and Beer . . . o
Dinners 9
Cheas and Butter . . o
Lemons o
Strong Beer . . . . o
Madeira 3
Champagne .... 2
Satume (sic in MS.) , I
Old Hock .... 4
Burgundy o
Hermitage . . . . o
Sileiy Champagne . . o
Sheriy o
St. Percy' 2
Old Port 2
Claret ii
Turtle Punch . . . o
Waxlights .... 2
Desert 6
Albion
House.
June 15
, 1818.
9
Pine-ice creams . .
1
16
9
Tea and Coffee . .
I
8
9
14
10
2 Haunches of Venison 10
9
Sweet sauce and dress
3
II
n
incT .....
I
4
10
f>
50 lbs. Turtle .
12
4
Dressing do. . .
2
2
H6
Ice for Wine . .
6
> 18
Rose Water . .
.')
) 18
Soda Water . .
12
) 16
Lemons and Sugar
for
7
do
S
II
Broken Glass .
.S
6
9
Servants' dinners
7
4
Waiters . ■ •
I
n
10
;^8S
9
6
) 6
" Consider, in the bird's-eye view of the banquet (says
Mr. Haslewood), the trencher cuts, foh ! nankeen displays ;
as iatersticed with many a brilliant drop to friendly beck
and clubbish hail, to moisten the viands, or cool the incipient
cayenne. No unfamished liveryman would desire better
dishes, or high-tasted courtier better wines. With men that
meet to commune, that can converse, and each willing to
give and receive information, more could not be wanting to
promote well-tempered conviviality j a social compound of
mirth, wit, and wisdom ; — combining all that Anacreon was
famed for, tempered with the reason of Demosthenes, and
intersected with the archness of Scaliger. It is true we had
not any Greek verses in praise of the grape ; but we had as
a tolerable substitute the ballad of the Bishop of Hereford,
and Robin Hood, sung by Mr. Dodd ; and it was of his
THE ROXBURGHE CLUB DINNERS. 163
own composing. It is true we had not any long oration
denouncing the absentees, the Cabinet council, or any other
set of men, but there was not a man present that at one
hour and seventeen minutes after the cloth was removed
but could not have made a Demosthenic speech far superior
to any record of antiquity. It is true no trait of wit is going
to be here preserved, for the flashes were too general ; and
what is the critical sagacity of Scaliger, compared to our
chairman? Ancients, beHeve it we were not dead drunk,
and therefore lie quiet under the table for once, and let a few
modems be uppermost.
" According to the long-established principles of ' May-
sterre Cockerre,' each person had 5/. 14J. to pay — a tremen-
dous surn, and much may be said tliereon."
Earl Spencer presided at the dinner which followed the
sale of the Valdarfer Boccaccio : twenty-one members sat
down to table at Jaquifere's (the Clarendon), and the bill
was comparatively moderate, 55/. 13^. Mr. Haslewood
says, with characteristic sprightliness : " Twenty-one mem-
bers met joyfully, dined comfortably, challenged eagerly,
tippled prettily, divided regretfully, and paid the bill most
cheerfully."
The foUowrng is the list of " Tostes,'' given at the first
Dinner, in 181 2 : —
Vs^t ®xii!X of ije %a%ivi.
The Immortal Memory of John Duke of Roxburghe.
Christopher Valdarfer, Printer of the Decameron of 1471.
Gutemberg, Fust, and Schseffher, the Inventors of
the Art of Printing.
William Caxton, the Father of the British Press.
Dame Juliana Barnes, and the St. Alban's Press.
Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson, the Illustrious
Successors of William Caxton.
The Aldine Family at Venice.
The Giunta Family at Florence.
The Society of the Bibliophiles at Paris.
The Prosperity of the Roxburghe Club.
The Cause of Bibliomania all over the World
M 2
1(54 CLUB LIFE OF LOAWON:
To show that the pursuits of the Roxburghe Club have
been estimated with a difference, we quote what may be
termed " another side of the question ": —
" Among other follies of the age of paper, which took place
in England at the end of the reign of George III., a set of
book-fanciers, who had more money than wit, formed them-
selves into a club, and appropriately designated themselves
the Bibliomaniacs. Dr. Dibden was their organ ; and
among the club were several noblemen, who, in other
respects, were esteemed men of sense. Their rage was, not
to estimate books according to their intrinsic worth, but
for their rarity. Hence, any volume of the vilest trash,
which was scarce, merely because it never had any sale,
fetched fifty or a hundred pounds ; but if it were but one of
two or three known copies, no limits could be set to the
price. Books altered in the title-page, or in a leaf, or any
trivial circumstance which varied a few copies, were bought
by these soi-disant maniacs, at one, two, or three hundred
pounds, though the copies were not really worth more than
threepence per pound. A trumpery edition of Boccaccio,
said to be one of two known copies, was thus bought by a
noble marquis for 1475/., though in two or three years after-
wards he resold it for 500/. First editions of all authors,
and editions by the first clumsy printers, were never sold
for less than 50/., 100/., or 200/.
" To keep each other in countenance, these persons
formed themselves into a club, and, after a Duke, one of
their fraternity, called themselves the Roxburghe Club. To
gratify them, facsimile copies of clumsy editions of trumpery
books were reprinted ; and, in some cases, it became worth
the while of more ingenious persons to play off forgeries
upon them. This mania after awhile abated ; and, in future
ages, it will be ranked with the tuhp and the picture mania,
during which estates were given for single flowers and
pictures.''
The Roxburghe Club still exists; and, with the Dilet-
THE SOCIE ry OF PAS T VERSEEKS. 1 65
tanti Society, may justly be said to have suggested tlie
Publishing Societies of the present day, at the head of which
is the Camden. The late Duke of Devonshire was a mu-
nificent member of the Roxburghe.
The Society of Past Overseers, Westminster.
There are several parochial Clubs in the metropolis ; but
that of the important parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster,
with " Past Overseers " for its members, has signalized
itself by the accumulation and preservation of an unique
heirloom, which is a very curious collection of memorials of
the last century and a half, exhibiting various tastes and
styles of art in their respective commemorations, in a sort
of chronology in silver.
Such is the St. Margaret's Overseer's Box, which origin-
ated as follows. It appears that a Mr. Monck purchased,
at Horn Fair, held at Charlton, Kent, a small tobacco-box
for the sum of fourpence, from which he often replenished
his neighbour's pipe, at the meetings of his predecessors and
companions in the office of Overseers of the Poor, to whom
the Box was presented in 17 13. In 1720, the Society of
Past Overseers ornamented the lid with a silver rim, com-
memorating the donor. In 1726, a silver side case and
bottom were added. In 1740, an embossed border was
placed upon the lid, and the under part enriched with an
emblem of Charity. In 1 746, Hogarth engraved inside the
lid a bust of the Duke of Cumberland, with allegorical
figures, and scroll commemorating the Battle of Culloden.
In 1765, an interwoven scroll was added to the lid, enclos-
ing a plate with the arms of the City of Westminster, and
inscribed : " This Box to be delivered to every succeeding
set of Overseers, on penalty of five guineas."
The original Horn box being thus ornamented, additional
cases were provided by the Senior Overseers for the time
being, — namely, silver plates engraved with emblematical
155 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
and historical subjects and busts. Among the first are a
View of the Fireworks in St. James's Park, to celebrate the
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1749; Admiral Keppel's Action
off Ushant, and his acquittal after a court-martial ; the Battle
of the Nile; the Repulse of Admiral Linois, 1804; the
Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 ; the Action between the San
Fiorenzo and La Pi6montaise, 1808; the Battle of Water-
loo, 1815 ; the Bombardment of Algiers, 181 6; View of
the House of Lords at the Trial of Queen Caroline ; the
Coronation of George IV. ; and his Visit to Scotland, 1822.
There are also — Portraits of John Wilkes, Churchwarden
in 1759 ; Nelson, Duncan, Howe, Vincent; Fox and Pitt,
1806; George IV. as Prince Regent, 181 1; the Princess
Charlotte, 1817; and Queen Charlotte, 1818. But the
more interesting representations are those of local circum-
stances ; as the Interior of Westminster Hall, with the
Westminster Volunteers, attending Divine Service at the
drum-head on the Fast Day, 1803 ; the Old Sessions
House ; a view of St. Margaret's, from the north-east ; and
the West Front Tower, and altar-piece. In 1813, a large silver
plate was added to the outer case, with a portrait of the
Duke of Wellington, commemorating the centenary of the
agglomeration of the Box.
The top of the second case represents the Governors of
the Poor, in their Board-room, and this inscription : " The
original Box and cases to be given to every succeeding set
of Overseers, on penalty of fifty guineas, 1783." On the
outside of the first case is a clever engraving of a cripple.
In 1785, Mr. Gilbert exhibited the Box to some friends
after dinner : at night, thieves broke in, and carried off all
the plate that had been in use; but the box had been
removed beforehand to a bedchamber.
In 1793, Mr. Read, a Past Overseer, detained the Box,
because his accounts were not passed. An action was
brought for its recovery, which was long delayed, owing to
two members of the Society giving Read a release, which
THE SOCIETY OP PAST OVERSEERS. 167
he successfully pleaded in bar to the action. This rendered
it necessary to take proceedings in equity : accordingly, a
Bill was filed in Chancery against all three, and Read was
compelled to deposit the box with Master Leeds until the
end of the suit. Three years of litigation ensued. Eventu-
ally the Chancellor directed the Box to be restored to the
Overseers' Society, and Mr. Read paid in costs 300/. The
extra costs amounted to 76/. 13^. i\d., owing to the illegal
proceedings of Mr. Read. The sum of 91/. 7J. was at once
raised; and the surplus spent upon a third case, of octagon
shape. The top records the triumph : Justice trampling
upon a prostrate man, from whose face a mask falls upon a
writhing serpent. A second plate, on the outside of the fly-
lid, represents the Lord Chancellor Loughborough, pro-
nouncing his decree for the restoration of the Box, March 5,
1796.
On the fourth, or outer case, is the Anniversary Meeting
of the Past Overseers' Society, with the Churchwardens
giving the charge previous to delivering the Box to the suc-
ceeding Overseer, who is bound to produce it at certain
parochial entertainments, with three pipes of tobacco at the
least, under the penalty of six bottles of claret ; and to
return the whole, with some addition, safe and sound, under
a penalty of 200 guineas.
A tobacco-stopper of mother-of-pearl, with a silver chain,
is enclosed within the Box, and completes this unique
Memorial of the kindly feeling which perpetuates year by
year the old ceremonies of this united parish ; and renders
this traditionary piece of plate of great price, far outweighing
its intrinsic value.*
* " Westminster." By the Rev. Mackenzie S. C. Walcott, M.A.,
Curate of St. Margaret's, 1849, pp. 105-107.
t6S
The Robin Hood.
In the reign of George the Second there met, at a house
in Essex-street, in the Strand, the Robin Hood Society, a
debating Club, at which, every Monday, questions were
proposed, and any member might speak on them for seven
minutes; after which the "baker," who presided with a
hammer in his hand, summed up the arguments. Arthur
Mainwaring and Dr. Hugh Chamberlain were among the
earliest members of this Society. Horace Walpole notices
the Robin Hood as one of the celebrities which Monsieur
Beaumont saw in 1761 : " It is incredible," says Walpole,
" what pains he has taken to see :" he breakfasted at Straw-
berry Hill with Walpole, who was then "as much a curiosity
to all foreigners as the tombs and lions."
The Robin Hood became famous as the scene of Burke's
earliest eloquence. To discipline themselves in pubUc
speaking at its meetings was then the custom among law-
students, and others intended for public life ; and it is said
that at the Robin Hood, Burke had to encounter an oppo-
nent whom nobody else could overcome, or at least silence :
this person was the president. Oliver Goldsmith was intro-
duced to the Club by Samuel Derrick, his acquaintance and
countryman. Struck by the eloquence and imposing aspect of
the president, who sat in a large gilt chair, Goldsmith thought
Nature had meant him for a lord chancellor : " No, no,"
whispered Derrick, who knew him to be a wealthy baker
from the city, "only for a master of the rolls." Goldsmith
was little of an orator; but, till Derrick went away to
succeed Beau Nash, at Bath, seems to have continued his
visits, and even spoke occasionally ; for he figures in an
account of the members published at about this time, as "a
candid disputant, with a clear head and an honest heart,
though coming but seldom to the society."
One of the members of this Robin Hood was Peter
THE BLUE-STOCKING CLUB. 169
Annet, a man who, though ingenious and deserving in other
respects, became unhappilly notorious by a kind of fanatic
crusade against the Bible, for which (published weekly
papers against the Book of Genesis,) he stood twice in one
year in the pillory, and then underwent imprisonment in the
King's Bench. To Annet's room in that prison went
Goldsmith, taking with him Newbery, the publisher, to
conclude the purchase of a Child's Grammar from the pri-
soner, hoping so to relieve his distress ; but on the prudent
publisher suggesting that no name should appear on the
title-page, and Goldsmith agreeing that circumstances made
this advisable, Annet accused them both of cowardice, and
rejected their assistance with contempt.*
The Blue-stocking Club.
The earliest mention of a Blue-Stocking, or Bas Bleu,
occurs in the Greek comedy, entitled the Banquet of Plu-
tarch. The term as applied to a lady of high literary taste,
has been traced by Mills, in his History of Chivalry, to the
Society de la Calza, formed at Venice in 1400, " when,
consistently with the singular custom of the Italians, of
marking academies and other intellectual associations by
some external sign of folly, the members, when they met in
literary discussion, were distinguished by the colour of their
stockings. The colours were sometimes fantastically
blended ; and at other times one colour, particularly blue,
prevailed." The Society de la Calza lasted till 1590, when
the foppery of Italian literature took some other S3maboI.
The rejected title then crossed the Alps, and found a con-
genial soil in Parisian society, and particularly branded
female pedantry. It then diverted from France to England,
and for awhile marked the vanity of the small advances in
literature in female coteries.
* Forster's Life of Goldsmith, p. 253.
£70 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
But the Bluestocking of the last century is of home-
groAvth; for Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, date 1781,
records : " About this time it was much the fashion for
several ladies to have evening assemblies, where the fair sex
might participate in conversation with literary and ingenious
men, animated by a desire to please. One of the most
eminent members of these societies, when they first com-
menced, was Mr. Stillingfleet (grandson of the Bishop),
whose dress was remarkably grave ; and in particular it was
observed that he wore blue stockings. Such was the excel-
lence of his conversation, that his absence was felt so great
a loss that it used to be said, ' We can do nothing without
the blue stockings ;' and thus by degrees the title was estab-
lished. Miss Hannah More has admirably described a
Blue-Stocking Club, in her Bas-Bleu, a poem in which many
of the persons who were most conspicuous there are men-
tioned. And Horace Walpole speaks of this production as
" a charming poetic familiarity called ' the Blue-Stocking
Club.' "
The Club met at the house of Mrs. Montagu, at the north-
west angle of Portman-square. Forbes, in his Life of Beattie,
gives another account : " This Society consisted originally
of Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Vesey, Miss Boscawen, and Mrs.
Carter, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Pulteney, Horace Walpole, and
Mr. Stillingfleet. To the latter gentleman, a man of great
piety and worth, and author of some works in natural history,
etc., this constellation of talents owed that whimsical ajjpel-
lation of ' Bas-Bleu.' Mr. Stillingfleet being somewhat of
an humourist in his habits and manners, and a little negli-
gent in his dress, literally wore gi-ay stockings ; from which
circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pileasantry,
to call them " The Blue-Stocking Society,' as if to intimate
that when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the pur-
pose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinc-
tion hearing the expression, translated it literally, 'Bas-
Bleu,' by which these meetings came to be afterwards dis-
THE IVY-LANE CLUB. 171
tinguished." Dr. Johnson sometimes joined the circle.
The last of the Club was the lively Miss Monckton, after-
wards Countess of Cork, " who used to have the finest bit of
blue at the house of her mother, Lady Galway." Lady Cork
died at upwards of ninety years of age, at her house in New
Burlington-street, in 1840.
The Ivy Lane Club.
This was one of the creations of Dr. Johnson's clubbable
nature, which served as recreation for this laborious worker.
He was now " tugging at the oar " in Gough-square, Fleet-
street. Boswell describes him as " engaged in a steady,
continued course of occupation." " But his enlarged and
lively mind could not be satisfied without more diversity of
emplo}Tnent, and the pleasure of animated relaxation. He,
therefore, not only exerted his talents in occasional compo-
sition, very different from lexicography, but formed a Club
in Ivy-lane, Paternoster-row, with a view to enjoy literary
discussion, and amuse his evening hours. The members
associated with him in this little Society were — his beloved
friend, Dr. Richard Bathurst ; Mr. Hawkesworth, afterwards
well known by his writings ; Mr. John Hawkins, an attor-
ney ; and a few others of different professions." The Club
met every Tuesday evening at the King's Head, a beef-steak
house in Ivy-lane. One of the members, Hawkins, then Sir
John, has given a very lively picture of a celebration by this
Club, at the Devil Tavern, in Fleet-street, which forms one
of the pleasantest pages in the Author's Life of Johnson.
Sir John tells us :
" One evening at the [Ivy-lane] Club, Dr. Johnson pro-
proposed to us celebrating the birth of Mrs. Lennox's first
literary child, as he called her book, by a whole night spent
in festivity. The place appointed was the Devil Tavern ;
and there, about the hour of eight, Mrs. Lennox, and her
husband, and a lady of her acquaintance now living [1785],
172 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
as also the Club and friends, to the number of nearly twenty,
assembled. Our supper was elegant, and Johnson had
directed that a magnificent hot apple-pye should make a
part of it, and this he would have stuck with bay-leaves,
because, forsooth, Mrs. Lennox was an authoress, and had
written verses ; and further, he had prepared for her a
crown of laurel, with which, but not until he had invoked
the Muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he
encircled her brows. The night passed, as must be ima-
gined, in pleasant conversation and harmless mirth, inter-
mingled, at different periods, with the refreshments of coffee
and tea. About five, Johnson's face shone with meridian
splendour, though his drink had been only lemonade ; but
the far greater part of us had deserted the colours of
Bacchus, and were with difficulty rallied to partake of a
second refreshment of coffee, which was scarcely ended
when the day began to dawn. This phenomenon began to
put us in mind of our reckoning ; but the waiters were all
so overcome with sleep, that it was two hours before we
could get a bill, and it was not till near eight that the
creaking of the street-door gave the signal for our depar-
ture."
When Johnson, the year before his death, endeavoured to
re-assemble as many of the Club as were left, he found, to his
regret, he wrote to Hawkins, that Horseman, the landlord,
was dead, and the house shut up.
About this time Johnson instituted a Club at the Queen's
Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard. " He told Mr. Hook,"
says Boswell, " that he wished to have a City Club, and
asked him to collect one ; but," said he, " don't let them be
patriots." (" Boswell's Life," 8th edit. vol. iv. p. 93.) This
was an allusion to the friends of his acquaintance Wilkes,
oswell accompanied him one day to the Club, and found
the members '•' very sensible, well-behaved men."
173
The Essex Head Club.
In the year before he died, at the Essex Head, now
No. 40, in Essex-street, Strand, Dr. Johnson established a
little evening Club, under circumstances peculiarly interesting
as described by Boswell. He tells us that, " notwithstanding
the complication of disorders under which Johnson now
laboured, he did not resign himself to despondency and
discontent, but with wisdom and spirit endeavoured to
console and amuse his mind with as many innocent enjoy-
ments as he could procure. Sir John Hawkins has men-
tioned the cordiality with which he insisted that such of the
members of the old Club in Ivy-lane as survived, should
meet again and dine together, which they did, twice at a
tavern, and once at his house ; and, in order to ensure him-
self in the evening for three days in the week, Johnson
instituted a Club at the Essex Head, in Essex-street, then
kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's : it
was called " Sam's."
On Dec. 4, 1783, Johnson wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds,
giving an account of this Club, of which Reynolds had
desired to be one ; " the company," Dr. J. says, " is nume-
rous, and, as you will see by the list, miscellaneous. The
terms are lax, and the expenses hght. Mr. Barry was
adopted by Dr. Brocklesby, who joined with me in forming
the plan. We meet twice a week, and he who misses
forfeits twopence." It did not suit Sir Joshua to be one of
this Club ; " but," says Boswell, " when I mention only Mr.
Daines Barrington, Dr. Brocklesby, Mr. Murphy, Mr. John
Nichols, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Joddrel, Mr. Paradise, Dr.
Horsley, Mr. Windham, I shall sufficiently obviate the
misrepresentation of it by Sir John Hawkins, as if it had
been a low ale-house association, by which Johnson was
degraded. The doctor himself, like his namesake. Old Ben,
composed the Rules of his Club. Boswell was, at this
174 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
time, in Scotland, and during all the winter. Johnson,
however, declared that he should be a member, and invented
a word upon the occasion : " Boswell," said he, " is a very
clubbable man ;" and he was subsequently chosen of the
Club.
Johnson headed the Rules with these lines ; —
To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drench
In mirth, which after no repenting draws. — Milton,
Johnson's attention to the Club was unceasing, as appears
by a letter to Alderman Clark, (afterwards Lord Mayor and
Chamberlain,) who was elected into the Club : the post-
script is : " You ought to be informed that the forfeits began
with the year, and that every night of non-attendance incurs
the mulct of threepence; that is, ninepence a week."
Johnson himself was so anxious in his attendance, that
going to meet the Club when he was not strong enough, he
was seized with a spasmodic asthma, so violent, that he
could scarcely return home, and he was confined to his
house eight or nine weeks. He recovered by May 15,
when he was in fine spirits at the Club.
Boswell writes of the Essex : " I believe there are few
Societies where there is better conversation, or more de-
corum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great
founder was removed by death. Other members were
added ; and now, above eight years since that loss, v/e go
on happily."
The Literary Club.
Out of the casual, but fi'equent meetings of men of talent
at the hospitable board of Sir Joshua Reynolds, in Leicester-
square, rose that association of wits, authors, scholars, and
statesmen, renowned as the Literary Club. Reynolds was
the first to propose a regular association of the kind, andwa,s
eagerly seconded by Johnson, who suggested as a model the
Club which he had formed some fourteen years previously,
THE LITERARY CLUB. ,-75
in Ivy-lane j* and which the deaths or dispersion of its
members had now interrupted for nearly seven years. On
this suggestion being adopted, the members, as in the earlier
Club, were limited to nine, and Mr. Hawkins, as an original
member of the Ivy-lane Club, was invited to join. Topham
Beauclerk and Bennet Langton were asked and welcomed
earnestly ; and, of course, Mr. Edmund Burke. The notion
of the Club delighted Burke ; and he asked admission for
his father-in-law, Dr. Nugent, an accomplished Roman
Catholic physician, who lived with him. Beauclerk, in like
manner, suggested his friend Chamier, then Under-Secretary-
at-War. Oliver Goldsmith completed the number. But
another member of the original Ivy-lane, Samuel Dyer,
making unexpected appearance from abroad, in the follow-
ing year, was joyfully admitted; and though it was resolved
to make election difficult, and only for special reasons
permit addition to their number, the limitation at first
proposed was thus, of course, done away with. Twenty was
the highest number reached in the course of ten years.
The dates of the Club are thus summarily given by Mr.
Hatchett, the treasurer: — It was founded in 1764, by Sir
Joshua Reynolds.and Dr. Samuel Johnson, and for some years
met on Monday evenings, at seven. In 1772, the day of
meeting was changed to Friday, and about that time, instead
of supping, they agreed to dine together once in every
fortnight during the sitting of Parliament. In 1773, the
Club, which soon after its foundation consisted of twelve
members, was enlarged to twenty; March ti, 1777, to
twenty-six; November 27, 1778, to thirty; May 9, 1780, to
thirty-five ; and it was then resolved that it should never
exceed forty.: It met originally at the Turk's Head, in
Gerard-street, and continued to meet there till 1783, when
* The house in Ivy-lane, which bore the name of Johnson, and where
Ih?. Literary Chib is said to have been held, was burnt down a few years
since : it had long been a chop-house.
176 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
their landlord died, and the house was soon afterwards shut
up. They then removed to Prince's in Saville-street ; and
on his house being, soon afterwards, shut up, they removed
to Baxter's, which afterwards became Thomas's, in Dover-
street. In January, 1792, they removed to Parsloe's, in
St. James's-street ; and on February 26, 1799, to the
Thatched House, in the same Street.
"So originated and was formed," says Mr. Forster, " that
famous Club, which had made itself a name in literary
history long before it received, at Garrick's funeral, the
name of the Literary Club, by which it is now known. Its
meetings were noised abroad ; the fame of its conversations
received eager addition, from the difficulty of obtaining
admission to it ; and it came to be as generally understood
that Literature had fixed her head-quarters here, as that
Politics reigned supreme at Wildman's, or the Cocoa-tree.
With advantage, let me add, to the dignity and worldly
consideration of men of letters themselves. ' I believe Mr.
Fox will allow me to say,' remarked the Bishop of St. Asaph,
when the Society was not more than fifteen years old, ' that
the honour of being elected into the Turk's Head Club, is
not inferior to that of being the representative of West-
minster or Surrey.' The Bishop had just been elected ; but
into such lusty independence had the Club sprung up thus
early, that Bishops, even Lord Chancellors, were known to
have knocked for admission unsuccessfully; and on the
night of St. Asaph's election, Lord Camden and the Bishop
of Chester were black-balled."
Of this Club, Hawkins was a most unpopular member :
even his old friend, Johnson, admitted him to be out of place
here. He had objected to Goldsmith, at the Club, " as a
mere literary drudge, equal to the task of compiling and
translating, but little capable of original, and still less of
poetical composition." Hawkins's " existence was a kind of
pompous, parsimonious, insignificant drawl, cleverly ridiculed
by one of the wits in an absurd epitaph: 'Here lies Sir Jonn
The Trumpet, Shire Lane, Temple Bar.
[Receiving Hoiiseof" The Taikr.")
The Cock, Tothill Street, Westminster.
[Dating from ffeniy Vf.)
THE LITERARY CLUB. 177
Hawkins, without his shoes and stauckin?.' " He was as
mean as he was pompous and conceited. He forbore to
partake of the suppers at the Club, and begged therefore to
be excused from paying his share of the reckoning. " And
was he excused?" asked Dr. Burney, of Johnson. "Oh yes,
for no man is angry at another for being inferior to himself.
We all scorned him, and admitted his plea. Yet I really
believe him to be an honest man at bottom, though, to be
sure, he is penurious and he is mean, and it must be owned
that he has a tendency to savageness." He did not remain
above two or three years in the Club, being in a manner
elbowed out in consequence of his rudeness to Burke. Still,
Burke's vehemence of will and sharp impetuosity of temper
constantly exposed him to prejudice and dislike ; and he
may have painfully impressed others, as well as Hawkins, at
the Club, with a sense of his predominance. This was the
only theatre open to him. " Here only," says Mr. Forster,
" could he as yet pour forth, to an audience worth exciting,
the stores of argument and eloquence he was thirsting to
employ upon a wider stage ; the variety of knowledge, the
fund of astonishing imagery, the ease of philosophic illustra-
tion, the overpowering copiousness of words, in which he
has never had a rival." Miss Hawkins was convinced that
her father was disgusted with the overpowering deportment
of Mr. Burke, and his monopoly of the conversation, which
made all the other members, excepting his antagonist, John-
son, merely listeners. Something of the same sort is said by
that antagonist, though in a more generous way. " What I
most envy Burke for," said Johnson, "is, that he is never what
we call humdrum ; never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in
haste to leave off. Take up whatever topic you please, he
is ready to meet you. I cannot say he is good at listening.
So desirous is he to talk, that if one is speaking at this end
of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end."
The Club was an opportunity for both Johnson and Burke ;
and for the most part their wit-combats seeih not only to
N
178 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
have instracted the rest, but to have improved the temper of
the combataxits, and to have made them more generous to
each other. " How very great Johnson has been to-night !"
said Burke to Bennet Langton, as they left the Club together.
Langton assented, but could have wished to hear more from
another person. " Oh no !" replied Burke, " it is enough for
me to have rung the bell to him.''
One evening he observed that a hogshead of claret, which
had been sent as a present to the Club, was almost out; and
proposed that Johnson should write for another, in such am-
biguity of expression as might have a chance of procuring it
also as a gift. One of the company said, " Dr. Johnson
shall be our dictator." — "Were I," said Johnson, "your
dictator, you should have no wine : it would be my business
cavere ne quid detrimenti respublica caperet : — wine is dan-
gerous ; Rome was ruined by luxury." Burke replied : " If
you allow no wine as dictator, you shall not have me for
master of the horse.''
Goldsmith, it must be owned, joined the Club somewhat
unwillingly, saying : " One must make some sacrifices to ob-
tain good society ; for here I am shut out of several places
where I used to play the fool very agreeably." His simplicity
of character and hurried expression often led him into ab-
surdity, and he became in some degree the butt of the com-
pany. The Club, notwithstanding all its learned dignity in
the eyes of the world, could occasionally unbend and play
the fool as well as less important bodies. Some of its j,ocose
conyersadons have at times leaked out; and the Society in
which Goldsiriith could venture to sing his song of "An Old
Woman 1^o,sse.d in a Blanket " could not be so very staid in
its gravity. Benn6t Langton and Topham Beauclerk were
doubtless induced to join the Clu]3^through their devotion
to Johnson, and the intimacy of these two ' very young and
aristocratic young men with the stern and somewhat meilan-
choly moralist. Bennet Langton, was of an ancient family,
who held their ancestral estate of Langton in Lincolnshire, a
THE LITERARY CLUB. 179
great title to respect with Johnson. "Langton, Sir," he
would say, "has a grant of free warren from Henry the
Second; and Cardinal Stephen Langton, in King John's
reign, was of this family."
Langton was of a mild, contemplative, enthusiastic nature.
When but eighteen years of age, he was so delighted with
reading Johnson's Rambler, that he came to London chiefly
with a view to obtain an introduction to the author.
Langton went to pursue his studies at Trinity College,
Oxford, where Johnson saw much of him during a visi.
which he paid to the University. He found him in close
intimacy with Topham Beauclerk, a youth two years older
than himself, very gay and dissipated, and wondered what
sympathies could draw two young men together of such
opposite characters. On becoming acquainted with Beau-
clerk, he found that, rake though he was, he possessed an
ardent love of literature, an acute understanding, polished
wit, innate gentility, and high aristocratic breeding. He was,
moreover, the only son of Lord-Sidney Beauclerk, and grand-
son of the Diike of St. Albans, and was thought, in some
particulars, to have a resemblance to Charles the Second.
These were high recommendations with Johnson ; and when
the youth testified a profound respect for him, and an ardent
admiration of 'his talents, the conquest was- Complete ; so
that in a "short time," says Boswell, "the moral, pious
Johnson and the gay dissipated Beauclerk were companions.''
When these two young men entered the Club, Langton
was about twenty-two, and Beauclerk about twenty-four years
of age, and both were launched on London life. Langton,
however, was still the mild, enthusiastic scholar, steeped to
the lips in Greek, with fine conversational powers, and an
invaluable talent for listening. He was upwards of six feet
high, and very spare. " Oh that we could sketch him !" ex^
claims Miss Hawkins, in her Memoirs, "with his mild
countenance, his. elegant features, and his sweet smile,
sitting with one leg twisted round the other, as if fearing to
N 2
l8o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
occupy more space than was equitable ; his person inclining
forward, as if wanting strength to support his weight ; and
his arms crossed over his bosom, or his hands locked to-
gether on his knee." Beauclerk, on such occasions,
sportively compared him to a stork in Raphael's cartoons,
standing on one leg. Beauclerk was more a " man upon
town," a lounger in St. James's-street, an associate with
George Selwyn, with Walpole, and other aristocratic wits, a
man of fashion at court, a casual frequenter of the gaming-
table ; yet, with all this, he alternated in the easiest and
happiest manner the scholar and the man of letters ; lounged
into the Club with the most perfect self-possession, bringing
with him the careless grace and pohshed wit of high-bred
society, but making himself cordially at home among his
learned fellow-members.
Johnson was exceedingly chary at first of the exclusive-
ness of the Club, and opposed to its being augmented in
number. Not long after its institution. Sir Joshua Reynolds
was speaking of it to Garrick. " I like it much," said little
David, briskly, "I think I shall be of you." "When Sir
Joshua mentioned this to Dr. Johnson,'' says Boswell, "he
was much displeased with the actor's conceit. ' Hill be of
us !' growled he ; ' how does he know we will permit him ?
The first duke in England has no right to hold such lan-
guage.'"
When Sir John Hawkins spoke favourably of Gamck's
pretensions, " Sir,'' replied Johnson, " he will disturb us by
his buffoonery." In the same spirit he declared to Mr.
Thrale, that if Garrick should apply for admission, he would
black-ball him. "Who, Sir?" exclaimed Thrale, with sur-
prise : " Mr. Garrick — ^your friend, your companion — black-
ball him ?" " Why, Sir," replied Johnson, " I love my Uttle
David dearly — better than all or any of his flatterers do ;
Dut surely one ought to sit in a society like ours,
Unelbowed by a gamester, pimp, or player.
THE LITERARY CLUB. iSl
The exclusion from the Club was a sore mortification to
Garrick, though he bore it without complaining. He could
not help continually asking questions about it — what was
going on there ? — whether he was ever the subject of con-
versation? By degrees the rigour of the Club relaxed,
some of the members grew negligent. Beauclerk lost his
right of membership by neglecting to attend. On his mar-
riage, however, with Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the
Duke of Marlborough, and recently divorced from Viscount
Bolingbroke, he had claimed and regained his seat in the
Club. The number of the members had likewise been
augmented. The proposition to increase it originated with
Goldsmith. " It would give," he thought, "an agreeable
variety to their meetings ; for there can be nothing new
amongst us," said he ; "we have travelled over each other's
minds." Johnson was piqued at the suggestion. "Sir,"
said he, " you have not travelled over my mind, I promise
you." Sir Joshua, less confident in the exhaustless fecundity
of his mind, felt and acknowledged the force of Goldsmith's
suggestion. Several new members, therefore, had been
added ; the first, to his great joy, was David Garrick.
Goldsmith, who was now on cordial terms with him, had
zealously promoted his election, and Johnson had given it
his warm approbation. Another new member was Beauclerk's
friend, Lord Charlemont ; and a still more important one
was Mr., afterwards Sir William Jones, the linguist. George
Colman, the elder, was a lively Club-man. One evening at
the Club he met Boswell ; they talked of Johnson's y^z^^wf)'
to the Western Islands, and of his coming away "willing to
believe the second sight," which seemed to excite some
ridicule. " I was then," says Boswell, " so impressed with
the truth of many of the stories which I had been told, that
I avowed my conviction, saying, " He is only willing to be-
lieve — I do believe ; the evidence is enough for me, though
not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart bottle will
i82 CLUB LIFE OF LONDOM.
fill a pint bottle ; I am filled with belief." — " Are you?" said
Colman ; " then cork it up."
Five years after the death of Garrick, Dr. Johnson dined
with the Club for the last time. This is one of the most
melancholy entries by Boswell. . "On Tuesday, June 22
(1784), I dined with him (Johnson) at the Literary Club,
the last time of his being in that respectable society. The
other members present were the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lord
Eliot, Lord Palmerston (father of the Premier), Dr. Fordyce,
and Mr. Malone. He looked ill ; but he had such a manly
fortitude, that he did not trouble the company with melan-
choly complaints. They all showed evident marks of kind
concern about him, with which he was much pleased, and he
exerted himself to be as entertaining as his indisposition
allowed him."
From the time of Garrick's death the Club was known as
" The Literary Club," since which it has certainly lost its
claim to this epithet. It was originally a club of authors by
profession; it now numbers very few except titled members
(the majority having some claims to literary distinction),
which was very far from the intention of its founders. To
this the author of the paper in the National Review demurs.
Writing in 1857, he says : " Perhaps it now numbers on its
list more titled members and fewer authors by profession,
than its founders would have considered desirable. This
opinion, however, is quite open to challenge. Such men as
the Marquis of Lansdowne, the late Lord Ellesmere, Lords
Brougham, CarHsle, Aberdeen, and Glenelg, hold their place
in ' the Literary Club ' quite as much by virtue of their con-
tributions to literature, or their enlightened support of it, as
by their right of rank." [How many of these noble members
have since paid the debt of natiire !]
" At all events," says Mr. Taylor, " the Club still acknow-
ledges literature as its foundation, and love of literature
as the tie which binds together its members, whatever their
rank and callings. Few Clubs can show such a distinguished
THE LITERARY CLUB. 183
brotherhood of members as 'the Literary.' Of authors
proper, from 1764 to this date (1857), may be enumerated,
besides its original members, Johnson and Goldsmith, Dyer,
and Percy, Gibbon and Sir William Jones, Colman, the two
Wartons, Parmer, Steevens, Burney, and Malone, Frere and
George Ellis, Hallam, Milman, Mountstuart Elphinstone,
and Lord Stanhope.
"Among men equally conspicuous in letters and the
Senate, what names outshine those of Burke and Sheridan,
Canning, Brougham, and Macaulay ? Of statesmen and
orators proper, the Club claims Fox, Windham, Thomas
Grenville, Lord Liverpool; Lords Lansdowne, Aberdeen, and
Clarendon. Natural science is represented by Sir Joseph
Banks, in the last century ; by Professor Owen in this. Social
science can have no nobler representative than Adam Smith ;
albeit, Boswell did think the Club had lost caste by electing
him. Mr. N. W. Senior is the political economist of the
present Club. Whewell must stand alone as the embodi-
ment of omniscience, which before him was unrepresented.
Scholars and soldiers may be equally proud of Rennel, Leake,
and Mure. Besides the clergymen already enumerated"
as authors, the Church has contributed a creditable list of
bishops and inferior dignitaries : Shipley of St. Asaph,
Barnard of Killaloe, Marley of Pomfret, HinchclifFe of
Peterborough, Douglas of Salisbury, Blomfield of London,
Wilberforce of Oxford, Dean Vincent of Westminster, Arch-
deacon Burney ; and Dr. Hawtrey, late master and present
provost of Eton.
" Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Charles Eastlake are its
two chief pillars of art, slightly unequal. With them we may
associate Sir 'William Chambers and Charles Wilkins. The
presence of Drs. Nugent, Blagden, Fordyce, Warren,
Vaughan, and Sir Henrj' Halford, is a proof that in the
Club medicine has from the first kept up its kinship with
literature.
" The profession of the Lrav has given the Society Lord
i84 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Ashburton, Lord Stowell, and Sir William Grant, Charles
Austin, and Pemberton Leigh. Lord Overstone may stand
as the symbol of money; unless Sir George Cornewall
Lewis is to be admitted to that honour by virtue of his
Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Sir George would,
probably, prefer his claims to Club membership as a
scholar and political writer, to any that can be picked out
of a Budget.
" Take it all in all, the Literary Club has never degene-
rated from the high standard of intellectual gifts and personal
qualities which made those unpretending suppers at the
Turk's Head an honour eagerly contended for by the wisest,
wittiest, and noblest of the eighteenth century."
Malone, in 1810, gave the total number of those who had
been members of the Club from its foundation, at seventy-
six, of whom fifty-five had been authors. Since 1810, how-
ever, literature has far less preponderance.
The designation of the Society has been again changed to
"the Johnson Club." Upon the taking down of the
Thatched House Tavern, the Club removed to the
Clarendon Hotel, in Bond-street, where was celebrated its
centenary, in September, 1864. There were present, upon
this memorable occasion, — in the chair, tlie Dean of St.
Paul's ; his Excellency M. Van de Weyer, Earls Clarendon
and Stanhope ; the Bishops of London and Oxford ; Lords
Brougham, Stanley, Cranworth, Kingsdown, and Harry
Vane ; the Right Hon. Sir Edmund Head, Spencer
Walpole, and Robert Lowe; Sir Henry Holland, Sir C.
Eastlake, Sir Roderick Murchison, Vice-Chancellor Sir W.
Page Wood, the Master of Trinity, Professor Owen, Mr. G.
Grote, Mr. C. Austen, Mr. H. Reeve, and Mr. G. Richmond.
Among the few members prevented from attending were the
Duke of Argyll (in Scotland), the Earl of Carhsle (in
Ireland), Earl Russell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Lord Overstone (at Oxford), Lord Glenelg (abroad), and
Mr. W. Stirling (from indisposition). Mr. N. W. Senior,
THE LITERARY CLUB. 1S5
who was the pohtical economist of the Club, died in
June, preceding, in his sixty-fourth year.
Hallam and Macaulay were among the constant atten-
dants at its dinners, which take place twice a month during
the Parliamentary season. The custody of the books and
archives of the Club rested with the secretary, Dr. Milman,
the Venerable Dean of St. Paul's, who took great pride and
pleasure in showing to literary friends the valuable collection
of autographs which these books contain. Among the
memorials is the portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with
spectacles on, similar to the picture in the Royal Collection :
this portrait was painted and presented by Sir Joshua, as
the founder of the Club.
Lord Macaulay has grouped, with his accustomed felicity
of language, this celebrated congress of men of letters.
" To discuss questions of taste, of learning, of casuistry,
in language so exact and so forcible that it might have been
printed without the alteration of a word, was to Johnson no
exertion, but a pleasure. He loved, as he said, to fold his
legs and have his talk out. He was ready to bestow the
overflowings of his full mind on anybody who would start a
subject, on a fellow-passenger in a stage-coach, or on the
person who sat at the same table with him in an eating-
house. But his conversation was nowhere so brilliant and
striking as when he was surrounded by a few friends, whose
abilities and knowledge enabled them, as he once expressed
it, to send him back every ball that he threw. Some of
these, in 1764, formed themselves into a Club, which
gradually became a formidable power in the commonwealth
of letters. The verdicts pronounced by this conclave on
new books were speedily known over all London, and were
sufficient to sell off a whole edition in a day, or to condemn
the sheets to the service of the trunk-maker and the pastry-
cook. Nor shall we think this strange when we consider
what great and various talents and acquirements met in the
little fraternity. Goldsmith was the representative of poetry
1 86 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
and light literature, Reynolds of the Arts, Burke of political
eloquence and political philosophy. There, too, were
Gibbon, the greatest historian, and Jones, the greatest
linguist of the age. Garrick brought to the meetings his
inexhaustible pleasantry, his incomparable mimicry, and his
consummate knowledge of stage effect. Among the most
constant attendants were two high-born and high-bred
gentlemen, closely bound together by friendship, but of
widely different characters and habits, — Bennet Langton,
distinguished by his skill in Greek literature, by the ortho-
doxy of his opinions, and by the sanctity of his life ; and
Topham Beauclerk, renowned for his amours, his knowledge
of the gay world, his fastidious taste, and his sarcastic wit.
To predominate over such a society was not easy. Yet
even over such a society Johnson predominated. Burke
might indeed have disputed the supremacy to which others
were under the necessity of submitting. But Burke, though
not generally a very patient listener, was content to take the
second part when Johnson was present; and the Club
itself, consisting of so many eminent men, is to this day
popularly designated as Johnson's Club."
To the same master-hand we owe this cabinet picture.
" The [Literary Club] room is before us, and the table on
which stand the omelet for Nugent, and the lemons for
Johnson. There are assembled those heads which live for
ever on the canvas of Reynolds. There are the spectacles
of Burke, and the tall thin form of Langton ; the courtly
sneer of Beauclerk, the beaming smile of Garrick, Gibbon
tapping his snufif-box, and Sir Joshua with his trumpet in
his ear. In the foreground is that strange figure which is as
familiar to us as the figures of those among whom we have
been brought up — the gigantic body, the huge massy face,
seamed with the scars of disease ; the brown coat, the black
worsted stockings, the grey wig with the scorched foretop ;
the dirty hands, the nails bitten and pared to the quick. We
see the eyes and the nose moving with convulsive twitches ;
GOLDSMITH'S CLUBS. 187
we see the heavy form rolling ; we hear it puffing ; and then
comes the 'Why, Sir?' and the 'What then, Sir?' and the
' No, Sir ! ' and the ' You don't see your way through the
question, Sir ! '"
Goldsmith's Clubs.
However Goldsmith might court the learned circle of the
Literary Club, he was ill at ease there : and he had social
resorts in which he indemnified himself for this restraint by
indulging his humour without control. One of these was a
Shilling Whist Club, which met at the Devil Tavern. The
company delighted in practical jokes, of which Goldsmith
was often the butt. One night he came to the Club in a
hackney-coach, when he gave the driver a guinea instead of
a shilling. He set this down as a dead loss ; but on the
next club-night he was told that a person at the street-door
wanted to speak to him ; he went out, and to his surprise
and delight, the coachman had brought him back the guinea !
To reward such honesty, he collected a small sum from the
Club, and largely increased it from his own purse, and with
this reward sent away the coachman. He was still loud in
his praise, when one of the Club asked to see the returned
guinea. To Goldsmith's confusion it proved to be a
counterfeit : the laughter which succeeded showed him that
the whole was a hoax, and the pretended coachman as much
a counterfeit as the guinea. He was so disconcerted that
he soon beat a retreat for the evening.
Another of these small Clubs met on Wednesday evening,
at the Globe Tavern, in Fleet-street; where songs, jokes,
dramatic imitations, burlesque parodies, and broad sallies of
humour, were the entertainments. Here a huge ton of a
man, named Gordon, used to delight Goldsihith with singing
the jovial song of " Nottingham Ale," and looking like a
butt of it. Here, too, a wealthy pig-butcher aspired to be
on the most sociable terms with Oliver ; and here was Tom
King, the comedian, recently risen to eminence by his per-
i88 CLLB LIFE OF LONDON.
formance of Lord Ogleby, in the new comedy of The Clan-
destine Marriage. A member of note was also one Hugh
Kelly, who was a kind of competitor of Goldsmith, but a
low one ; for Johnson used to speak of him as a man who
had written more than he had read. Another noted fre-
quenter of the Globe and Devil taverns was one Glover,
who, having failed in the medical profession, took to the
stage; but having succeeded in restoring to hfe a malefactor
who had just been executed, he abandoned the stage, and
resumed his wig and cane, and came to London to dabble
in physic and literature. He used to amuse the company
at the Club by his story-telling and mimicry, giving capital
imitations of Garrick, Foote, Colman, Sterne, and others.
It was through Goldsmith that Glover was admitted to the
Wednesday Club ; he was, however, greatly shocked by the
free-and-easy tone in which Goldsmith was addressed by the
pig-butcher ; " Come, Noll," he would say as he pledged
him, " here's my service to you, old boy."
The evening's amusement at the Wednesday Club was
not, however, limited; it had the variety of epigram, and
here was first heard the celebrated epitaph (Goldsmith had
been reading Pope and Swift's Miscellanies^ on Edward
Purdon : —
Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed,
Who long was a bookseller's hack ;
He bad led such a damnable life in this world,
I don't think he'll wish to come back.
It was in April of the present year that Purdon closed his
luckless life by suddenly dropping down dead in Smithfield ;
and as it was chiefly Goldsmith's pittance that had saved
him thus long from starvation, it was well that the same
friend should give him his solitary chance of escape from
oblivion. " Doctor Goldsmith made this epitaph," says
William Ballantyne, " in his way from his chambers in the
Temple to the Wednesday evening Club at the Globe. /
think he will never come back, I believe he said ; I was
THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 189
sitting by him, and he repeated it more than once. / think
he will never come back ! Ah ! and not altogether as a jest, it
may be, the second and the third time. There was some-
thing in Purdon's fate, from their first meeting in college to
that incident in Smithfield, which had no very violent con-
trast to his own ; and remembering what Glover had said of
his frequent sudden descents from mirth to melancholy,
some such faithful change of temper would here have been
natural enough. ' His disappointments at these times,'
Glover tells us, ' made him peevish and sullen, and he has
often left his party of convivial friends abruptly in the even-
ing, in order to go home and brood over his misfortunes.'
But a better medicine for his grief than brooding over it,
was a sudden start into the country to forget it ; and it was
probably with a feeling of this kind he had in the summer
revisited Islington ; he laboured during the autumn in a
room of Canonbury Tower; and often, in the evening,
presided at the Crown tavern, in Islington Lower-road,
where Goldsmith and his fellow-lodgers had formed a kind
of temporary club. At the close of the year he returned to
the Temple, and was again pretty constant in his attendance
at Gerard-street." *
The Dilettanti Society.
The origin of this Society, which has now existed some
130 years, is due to certain gentlemen, who had travelled
much in Italy, and were desirous of encouraging at home a
taste for those objects which had contributed so much to
their intellectual gratification abroad. Accordingly, In the
year 1734, they formed themselves into a Society, under the
name of Dilettanti (literally, lovers of the Fine Arts), and
agreed upon certain Regulations to keep up the spirit of
• See Forster's Life of Goldsmith, pp. 422-424.
igo CLUB LIFE OF LOyDON.
their scheme, which combined friendly and social inter-
course, with a serious and ardent desire to promote the
Arts. In 1751, Mr. James Stuart, "Athenian Stuart," and
Mr. Nicholas Revett, were elected members. The Society
liberally assisted them in their excellent work, " The Anti-
quities of Athens.'' In , fact it was, in great measure, owing
to this Society that after the death of the above two eminent
architects, the work was not entirely relinquished; and a
large number of the plates were engraved from drawings in
the possession of the Dilettanti. Walpole, speaking in 1743,
of the Society, in connexion with an opera subscription,
says, " The nominal qualification [to be a member] is having
been in Italy, and the real one, being drunk ; the two chiefs
are Lord Middlesex and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were
seldom sober the whole time they were in Italy." We need
scarcely add, that the qualifications for election are no longer
what Walpole described them to have been.
In 1764, the Society, being possessed of a considerable
sum above what their services required, various schemes
were proposed for applying part of this, money ; and it was
at length resolved " that a person or persons properly quali-
fied, should be sent, with sufficient appointments, to certain
parts of the East, to collect information relative to the
former state of those countries, and particularly to procure
exact descriptions of the ruins of such monuments of
antiquity as are yet to be seen in those parts."
Three persons were elected for this undertaking, Mr.
Chandler, of Magdalen College, Oxford, editor of the Mar-
tnofa Oxoniensia, was appointed to execute the classical part
of the plan. Architecture was assigned to Mr. Revett ; and
the choice of a proper person for taking views and copying
the bas-rdiefs, fell upon Mr. Pars, a young painter of
promise. Each person was strictly enjoined to keep a
regular journal, and hold a constant correspondence with
the Society.
The party embarked on June 9, 1764, in the AngJicana,
THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 191
bound for Constantinople, and were just at the Dardanelles
on the zsth of August. Having visited the Sigasan Pro-
montory, the ruins of Troas, with the islands of Tenedos
and Scio, tliey arrived at Smyrna on the nth of Septem-
ber. From that city, as their head-quarters, they made
several excursions. On the 20th of August, 1765, they sailed
from Smyrna, and arrived at Athens on the 30th of the same
month, having touched at Suniura and ^gina on their way.
They stayed at Athens till June 11, 1766, visiting Marathon,
Eleusis, Salomis, Megaia, and other places in the neighbour-
hood. Leaving Athens, they proceeded by the little island
of Calauria to Trezene, Epidaurus, Argos, and Corinth.
From this they visited Delphi, PatrSj Ehs, and Zante,
whence they sailed on the 31st of August, and arrived in
England on the 2nd of November following, bringing with
them an immense number of drawings, etc., the result of
which was the publication, at the expense of the Society, of
two magnificent volumes of " Ionian Antiquities." The
results of the expedition were also the two popular works,
" Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor," 1775 ; and his " Travels
in Greece," in the following year ; also, the volume of
" Greek Inscriptions," 1774, containing the Sigaean inscrip-
tion, the marble of which bas been since brought to England
by Lord Elgin ; and the celebrated documents containing
the reconstruction of the Temple of Minerva Polias, which
Professor Wilkins illustrated in his "Prolusiones Archi-
tectonicse, 1837."
Walpole, in 1791, has this odd passage upon the Ionian
Antiquities: "They who are industrious and correct, and
wish to forget nothing, should go to Greece, where there is
nothing left to be seen, but that ugly pigeon-house, the
Temple of the Winds, that fly-cage, Demosthenes's Lantern,
and one or two fragments of a portico, or a piece of a
column crushed into a mud wall ; and with such a morsel,
and many quotations, a lirue classic antiquary can compose a
whole folio, and call it " Ionian Antiquities."
192 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
But, it may be asked, how came the Society to associate
so freely pleasure with graver pursuits ? To this it may be
replied, that when the Dilettanti first met they avowed
friendly and social intercourse the first object they had in
view, although they soon showed that they would combine
with it a serious plan for the promotion of the Arts in this
country. For these persons were not scholars, nor even men
of letters ; they were some of the wealthiest noblemen and
most fashionable men of the day, who would naturally sup
■\vith the Regent as he went through Paris, and find them,
selves quite at home in the Carnival of Venice. These, too,
were times of what would now be considered very licentious
merriment and very unscrupulous fun, — times when men of
independent means and high rank addicted themselves to
pleasure, and gave vent to their full animal spirits with a
frankness that would now be deemed not only vulgar but
indecorous, while they evinced an earnestness about objects
now thought frivolous which it is very easy to represent as
absurd. In assuming, however, the name of "Dilettanti"
they evidently attached to it no light and superficial notion.
The use of that word as one of disparagement or ridicule is
quite recent. The same may be said of " Virtli," which, in
the artistic sense, does not seem to be strictly academical,
but that of " Virtuoso " is so, undoubtedly, and it means the
" capable " man, — the man who has a right to judge on
matters requiring a particular faculty : Dryden says :
"Virtuoso the Italians call a man ' who loves the noble arts^
and is a critic in them,' or, as old Glanville says, ' who dwells
in a higher region than other mortals.'
" Thus, when the Dilettanti mention ' the cause of virtue
as a high object which they will never abandon, they express
their belief that the union into which they had entered had
a more important purpose than any personal satisfaction
could give it, and that they did engage themselves thereby
in some degree to promote the advantage of their country
and of mankind.
THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 193
"Of all the merry meetings these gay gentlemen had
together, small records remain. We, looking back out of a
graver time, can only judge from the uninterrupted course
of their festive gatherings, from the names of the statesmen,
the wits, the scholars, the artists, the amateurs, that fill the
catalogue, from the strange mixture of dignities and
accessions to wealth for which, by the rules of the Society,
fines were paid, — and above all, by the pictures which they
possess^ — how much of the pleasantry and the hearty enjoy-
ment must have been mixed up with the more solid pursuits
of the Members. Cast your eye over the list of those who
met togetherat the table of the Dilettanti any time between
1770 and 1790."* Here occur the names of Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Earl Fitzwilliam, Charles James Fox, Hon.
Stephen Fox (Lord Holland), Hon. Mr. Fitzpatrick, Charles
Howard (Duke of Norfolk), Lord Robert Spencer, George
Selw)m, Colonel Fitzgerald, Hon. H. Conway, Joseph
Banks, Duke of Dorset, Sir William Hamilton, David
Garrick, George Colman, Joseph Windham, R. Payne
Knight, Sir George Beaumont, Towneley, and others of less
posthumous fame, but probably of not less agreeable com-
panionship.
The funds must have largely benefited by the payment of
fines, some of which were very strange. Those paid " on
increase of income, by inheritance, legacy, marriage, or pre
ferment," are very odd ; as, five guineas by Lord Grosvenor
on his marriage with Miss Leveson Gower ; eleven guineas'
by the Duke of Bedford, on being appointed First Lord
of the Admiralty ; ten guineas compounded for by Bubb
Dodington, as Treasurer of the Navy ; two guineas by the
Duke of Kingston for a Colonelcy of Horse (then valued at
400/. per annum) ; twenty-one pounds by Lord Sandwich on
going out as Ambassador to the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle >
and twopence three-farthings by the same nobleman, on
* Edinburgh Review, No. 214, p. ^00.
O
194 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
becoming Recorder of Huntingdon ; thirteen shillings and
fourpence by the Duke of Bedford, on getting the Garter ;
and sixteen shillings and eightpence (Scotch) by the Duke
of Buccleuch, on getting the Thistle ; twenty-one pounds by ;
the Earl of Holdemesse, as Secretary of State ; and nine
pounds, nineteen shillings and sixpence, by Charles James
Fox, as a Lord of the Admiralty.
In 1814, another expedition was undertaken by the
Society, when Sir William Gell, with Messrs. Gandy and
Bedford, professional architects, proceeded to the Levant.
Smyrna was again appointed the head-quarters of the
mission, and fifty pounds per month was assigned to Gell,
and two hundred pounds per annum to each of the
architects. An additional outlay was required ; and by this
means the classical and antique literature of England was
enriched with the fullest and most accurate descriptions of
important remains of ancient art hitherto given to the world.
The contributions of the Society to the sesthetic studies
of the time also deserve notice. The excellent design to
publish " Select Specimens of Antient Sculpture preserved
in the several Collections of Great Britain " was carried into
effect by Messrs. Payne Knight and Mr. Towneley, 2 vols,
folio, 1809 — 1835. Then followed Mr. Penrose's "Investi-
gations into the Principles of Athenian Architecture," printed
in 1851.
About the year 1820, those admirable monuments of
Grecian art, called the Bronzes of Siris, were discovered on
the banks of that river, and were brought to this country by
the Chevalier Brondsted. The Dilettanti Society immediately
organized a subscription of 800/., and the Trustees of the'
British Museum completed the purchase by the additional
sum of 200/.
It was mainly through the influence and patronage of the
Dilettanti Society that the Royal Academy obtained a
Charter. In 1774, the interest of 4000/. three per cents,
■vas appropriated by the former for the purpose of sending
THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 195
two Students, recommended by the Royal Academy, to
study in Italy or Greece for three years.
In 1835 appeared a Second Volume on Ancient Scvilpture.
The Society at this time included, among a list of sixty-four
names of the noble and learned, those of Sir William Gell,
Mr. Towneley, Richard Westmacott, Henry Hallam, the
Duke of Bedford, Sir M. A. Shee, P.R.A., Henry T. Hope;
and Lord Prudhoe, afterwards Duke of Northumberland.
That a Society possessing so much wealth and social
importance as the Dilettanti should not have built for them-
selves a man&ion is surprising. In 1747 they obtained a
plot of ground in Cavendish Square, for this purpose j but
in 1760, they disposed of the property. Between 1761 and
1764 the project of an edifice in Piccadilly, on the model of
the Temple of Pola, was agitated by the Committee ; two
sites were proposed, one between Devonshire and Bath
Houses, the other on the west side of Cambridge House.
This scheme was also abandoned.
Meanwhile the Society were accustomed to meet at the
Thatched House Tavern, the large room of which was
hung with portraits of the Dilettanti. Sir Joshua Reynolds,
who was a member, painted for the Society three capital
pictures : — i. A group in the manner of Paul Veronese,
containing the portraits of the Duke of Leeds,, Lord Dundas,
Constantine Lord Mulgrave, Lord Seaforth, the Hon.
Charles Greville, Charles Crowle, Esq., and Sir Joseph
Banks. 2. A group in the manner of the same master,
containing portraits of Sir William Hamilton, Sir Watkin W.
Wynne, Richard Thomson, Esq., Sir John Taylor, Payne
Galway, Esq., John Smythe, Esq., and Spencer S. Stanhope,
Esq. 3. Head of Sir Joshua, dressed in a loose robe, and
in his own hair. The earlier portraits are by Hudson,
Reynolds's master.
Some of these portraits are in the costume familiar to us
through Hogarth; others are in Turkish or Roman dresses.
There is a mixture of the convivial in all these pictures
o 2
ige CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
many are using wine-glasses of no small size : Lord Sand-
wich, for instance, in a Turkish costume,- casts a most un-
orthodox glance upon a brimming goblet in his left hand,
while his right holds a flask of great capacity. Sir Bouchier
Wray is seated in the cabin of a ship, mixing punch, and
eagerly embracing the bowl, of which a lurch of the sea would
seem about to deprive him : the inscription is Duke est
desipere in loco. ■ Here is a curious old portrait of the Earl of
Holdemesse, in a red cap, as a gondolier, ^with the Rialto
and Venice in the background : there is Charles Sackville,
Duke of Dorset, as a Roman senator, dated 1738; Lord
Galloway, in the dress of a cardinal ; and a very singular
likeness of one of the earliest of the Dilettanti, Lord Le
Despencer, as a monk at his devotions : his Lordship is
clasping a brimming goblet for his rosary, and his eyes are
not very piously fixed on a statue of the Venus de' Medici.
It must be conceded that some of these pictures remind one
of the Medmenham orgies, with which some of the Dilettanti
were not unfamiliar. The ceiling of the large room was
painted to represent sky, and crossed by gold cords in-
terlacing each other, and from their knots were hung three
large glass chandeliers.
The Thatched House has disappeared, but the pictures
have been well cared for. The Dilettanti have removed to
another tavern, and dine together on the first Sunday in
every month from February to July. The late Lord Aber-
deen, the Marquises of Northampton and Lansdowne, and
Colonel Leake, and Mr. Broderip, were members; as was
also the late Lord Northwick, whose large collection of
pictures at Thirlestane, Cheltenham, was dispersed by sale
in 1859.
The Royal Naval Club.
About the year 1674, according to a document in the
possession of Mr. Fitch of Norwich, a Naval Club was
started " for the improvement of a mutuall Society, and an
THE ROYAL NAVAL CLUB. 197
encrease of Love and Kindness amongst them ;" and that
consummate seaman, Admiral Sir John Kempthorrie, was
declared Steward of the institution. This was the precursor
of the Royal Naval Club of 1765, which, whether considered
for its amenities or its extensive charities, may be justly
cited as a model establishment (Admiral Smyth's "Rise and
Progress of the Royal Society Club, p. 9.) The members of
this Club annually distribute a considerable sura among the
distressed widows and orphans of those who have spent their
days in the naval service of their country. The Cliib was
accustommed to dine together at the Thatched House
Tavern, on the anniversary of the battle of the Nile.
" Founded on the model of the old tavern or convivial
Clubs, but confined exclusively to members of the Naval
Service, the Royal Naval Club numbered among its mem-
bers men from the days of Boscawen, Rodney, arid 'tiie
first of June' downwards. It was a favourite retreat for Wil-
liam IV. when Duke of Clarence ; and his comrade Sir Philip
Durham, the survivor of Nelson, and almost the last of the
'old school,' frequented it. Sir Philip, however, was by no
means one of the Trunnion class. Coarseness and profane
language, on the contrary, he especially avoided; but in
'spinning a yam' there has been none like him :since the
days of Smollett. The loss of the Royal George, from which
he was one of the few, if, indeed, not the only officer, who
escaped, was a favourite theme ; and the Admiral, not con-
tent with having' made his escape, was wont to maintain that
he swam ashore with his midshipman's dirk in his teeth.
Yet Sir Philip would allow no one to trench on his manor.
One day when a celebrated naval captain, with the view of
quizzing him, was relating the loss of a merchantman on the
coast of South America, laden with Spitalfields products,
and asserting that silk was so plentiful, and the cargo so
scattered, that the porpoises were for some hours enmeshed
in its folds: 'Ay, ay,' replied Sir Philip, 'I believe you; for
I was once cruising on that coast myself, in search of a pri-
igS CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
vateer, and having. lost our fore-topsail one morning in a gale
of wind, we next day found it tied round a whale's neck by
way of a cravat.' Sir Philip was considered to have the best
of itj and the novehst was mute."*
The Wyndham Club.
This Glub, which partakes of the character of Arthur's and
Boodle's, was founded by Lord Nugent, its objects being, as
stated in Rule i, "to secure a convenient and agreeable place
of meeting for a society of gentlemen, all connected with each
other by a common bond of literary or personal acquaintance.!'
The Club, No. ii, St. James's-square, is named from the
mansion having been the residence of William Wyndham,
who has been described, and the description has been gene-
rally adopted as appropriate, as a model of the true English
gentleman; and the fitness of the Club designation is
equally characteristic. He was an accomplished scholar and
mathematician. Dr. Johnson writing of a visit which W5Tid-
ham paid him, says : "Such conversation I shall not have
again till I come back to the regions of Hterature, and there
Wyndham is 'inter Stellas luna minores.' "
In the mansion also lived the accomplished John Duke of
Roxburghe; and here the Rdxburghe Library was sold in
1812, the sale extending to forty-one days. Lord Chief
Justice EUenborough lived here in 1814; and subsequently,
the Earl of Blessington, who possessed a fine collection of
pictures.
The Travellers' Club.
, This famous Club was originated shortly after the Peace
of 1814, by the Marquis of Londonderry (then Lord Castle-
reagh), with a view to a resort for, gentlemen who had re-
sided or travelled abroad, as well as with a view to the
"London Clubs," 1853.
THE TRAVELLERS CLUB. 199
-accommodation ■ of foreigners, wlio, when properly' recom-
mended, receive an invitation for the period of their stay.
One of the Rules directs " That no person' be considered
eligible to the Travellers' Club who shall not have travelled
out of the British Islands to a distance of atleast 500 miles
from London in a direct line." Another Rule directs "That
no dice and no game of hazard be allowed in the rooms of
the Club, nor any higher stake than guinea points, and that
no cards be introduced before dinner."
Prince Talleyrand, during his residence in Londoti,
generally joined the muster of whist-players at the Travellers';
probably, here was the scene of this felicitous rejoinder.
The Prince was enjoying his rubber, when the conversation
turned on thcTCcent union of an elderly lady of respectable
rank. " How ever could Madame de S make such a
match ? — a person of her birth to marry a valet-de-chambreP'
"Ah," replied Talleyrand, "it was late in the game: at nine
we don't reckon honoiirs."
The present Travellers' Club-house, which adjoins the
Athenaeum in Pall Mall, was designed by Barry, R.A., and
built in 1832. It is one of the architect's most admired
works. Yet, we have seen it thus treated, with more smart-
ness than judgment, by a critic who is annoyed at its disad.
vantageous comparison with its more gigantic neighbours : —
" The Travellers' is worse, and looks very like a sandwich
at the Swindon station — a small stumpy piece of beef be-
tween two huge pieces of bread, i.e. the Athenaeum and the
Reform Clubs, which look as if they were urging their
migratory neighbour to resume the peregrinations for which
its members are remarkable. Yet people have their names
down ten years at the Travellers' previous to their coming
up for ballot. An election reasonably extended would supply
funds for a more advantageous and extended position."
The architecture is the nobler Italian, resembling a
Roman palace : the plan is a quadrangle, with an open area
in the middle, so that all the rooms are well lighted. . The
200 CLUB LIFE OF LONI>ON.
Pall Mall front has a bold and rich cornice, and . the
windows are decorated with Corinthian pilasters : the garden
front varies in the windows, but the Italian taste is preserved
throughout, with the most careful finish : the roof is Italian
tiles. To be more minute, the consent of all competent
judges has assigned a very high rank to this building as a
piece of architectural design; for if, in point of mere quantity,
it fall greatly short of many contemporary structures, it sur-
passes nearly every one of them in quality, and in the artist-
like treatment. In fact, it marks an epoch in our metro-
politan architecture ; for before, we had hardly a specimen
of that nobler Italian style which, instead of the flutter and
flippery, and the littleness of manner, which pervade most
of ihe productions of the Palladian school, is characterized
by breadth and that refined simplicity arising from unity of
idea and execution, and from every part being consistently
worked up, yet kept subservient to one predominating effect.
Unfortunately, the south front, which is by far the more
striking and graceful composition, is comparatively little seen,
being that facing Carlton Gardens, and not to be approached
so as to be studied as it deserves ; but when examined, it
certainly must be allowed to merit all the admiration it has
obtained. Though perfect, quiet, and sober in effect, and
unostentatious in character, this building of Barry's is re-
markable for the careful finish bestowed on every part of it.
It is this quality, together with the taste displayed in the
design generally, that renders it an architectural bijou.
Alinost any one must be sensible of this, if he will but be at
the pains to compare it with the United Service Club, eastward
of which, as far as mere quantity goes, there is much more.
Another critic remarks : " The Travellers' fairly marks an
epoch in the architectural history of Club-houses, as being
almost the first, if not the very first, attempt, to introduce
into this country that species of rich astylar composition
which has obtained the name of the Italian palazzo mode,
by way of contradistinction from Palladianism and its orders.
THE UNITED SERVICE CLUB. 201
This production of Barry's has given a. fresh impulse to
architectural design, and one in a more artistic direction ;
and the style adopted by the architect has been, applied to
various other buildings in the provinces as well as in the
metropolis ; and its influence has manifested ' itself in the
taste of our recent street architecture."
The Travellers' narrowly escaped destructionon October 2 4:
1850, when a fire did great damage to the biUiard-roomsj
which were, by the way, an afterthought, and addition to
the original building, but by no means an improvement upon
the first design, for they: greatly impaired the beauty of the
garden-front.
The United Service Club,
One of the oldest of the modern Clubs, was instituted the
year after the Peace of 1815, when a few officers of influence
in both branches of the Service had built for them, by Sir
R. Smirke, a Club-house at the comer of Charles-street and
Regent-street, — a frigid design, somewhat relieved by sculp-
ture on the entrance-front, of Britannia distributing laurels
to her brave sons by land and sea. Thence the Club re-
moved to a more spacious house, in Waterloo-place, facing
the Athenjeumj the Club-house in Charles-street being
entered on by the Junior United Service Club ; but Smirke's
cold design has been displaced by an edifice of much more
ornate exterior and luxurious internal appliances.
The United Service Club (Senior) was designed by Nash,
and has a well-planned interior, exhibiting the architect's
well-known excellence in this branch of his profession.
The principal front facing Pall Mall has a Roman-Doric
portico ; and above it a Corinthian portico, with pediment.
One of the patriarchal members of the Club was Lord Lyne-
doch, the hero of the Peninsular War, who lived under five
sovereigns : he died in his 93rd year, leaving behind him a
name to be held in honoured reinembrance, while loyalty is
considered to be a real virtue, or military renown a passport
202 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
to fame. It is a curious fact that the Duke of Wellington
fought his last battle at an earlier period of life than that in
which Lord Lynedoch "fleshed his maiden sword;" and
though we were accustomed to regard the Duke himself as
preserving his vigour to a surprisingly advanced age, Lord
L)Tiedoch was at his death old enough to have been the
father of his Grace. The United Service was the favourite
Glub of the Duke, who might often be seen dining here on
a joint J and on one occasion, when he was charged \s. %d.
instead of u. for it, he bestirred himself till the threepence
was struck off. The motive was obvious : he took the trouble
of objecting, so that he might sanction the principle.
Among the Club pictures is Jones's large painting of the
Battle of Waterloo j and the portrait of the Duke of
Wellington, painted for the Club by W. Robinson. . Here
also are Stanfield's fine picture of the Battle of Trafalgar ;
and a copy, by Lane, painted in 1851, of a contemporaiy
portrait of Sir Francis Drake, our " Elizabethan Sea-King."
The Club-house has of late years been considerably en-
larged.
The Alfred Club.
In the comparatively quiet Albemarle-street was instituted,
in 1808, the Alfred Club, which has, ab initio, been remark-
able for the number of travellers and men of letters, who
form a considerable proportion of its members. Science is
handsomely housed at the Royal Institution, on the east side
of the street ; and literature nobly represented by the large
publishing-house of Mr. Murray, on the west ; both circum-
stances tributary to the otitmi enjoyed in a Club. Yet,
strangely enough, its position has been a frequent Source of
banter to the Alfred. First it was known by its cockney-
appellation of Half-read. Lord Byron was a member, and
he tells us that " it was pleasant, a little too sober and
literary, and bored with Sotheby and Francis DTvernois;
but one met Rich, and Ward, and Valentia, and many Other
THE ALFRED CLUB. 203
pleasant or known people; and it was,, in the whole, a
decent resource in a rainy day, in a dearth of parties, or
Parliament, or in an empty season."
Lord Dudley, writing to the Bishop of LlandafT, says : " I
am glad you mean to come into the Alfred this time. We
are the most abused, and most envied, and most canvassed
Society that I know of, and we deserve neither the one nor
the other distinction. The Club is not so good a resource
as many respectable persons would believe, nor are we by
any means such quizzes or such bores as the wags pretend.
A duller place than the Alfred there does not exist. I
should not choose to be quoted for saying so, but the bores
prevail there to the exclusion of every other interest. You
hear nothing but idle reports and twaddling opinions. They
read the Morning Post and the British Critic. It is the
asylum of doting Tories and drivelling quidnuncs. But
they are civil and quiet. You belong to a much better Club
already. The eagerness to get into it is prodigious.''
Then, we have the Quarterly Review, with confirmation
strong of the two Lords : — " The Alfred received its coup-
de-gr&ce from a well-known story, (rather an indication than
a cause of its decline,) to the effect that Mr. Canning, whilst
in the zenith of his fame, dropped in accidentally at a house
dinner of twelve or fourteen, stayed out the evening, and
made himself remarkably agreeable, without any one of the
party suspecting who he was."
The dignified clergy, who, with the higher class of lawyers,,
have long ago emigrated to the Athenaeum and University
Clubs, formerly mustered in such great force at the Alfred,,
that Lord Alvanley^ on being asked in the bow window at
White's, whether he was still a member, somewhat irre-
verently repHed : " Not exactly : I stood it as long as I
could, but when the seventeenth bishop was proposed I
gave in. I really could not enter the place without being
put in mind of my catechism." " Sober-minded people,"
says the Quarterly Review, "may be apt to think this
204 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
fonned the best possible reason for his. lordship's remaining
where he was. It is hardly necessary to say that the pre-
sence of the bishops and judges is universally regarded as an
unerring test of the high character of a Club." ■ ■
The Oriental Club.
Several years ago, the high dignitaries of the Church and
Law kept the Alfred to themselves ; but this would not do :
then they admitted a large number of very respectable good
young men, who were unexceptionable, but not very
amusing. This, again, would not do. So, now the Alfred
joined, 1855, the Oriental, in Hanover-square. And
curiously enough, thQ latter Club has been quizzed equally
with the Alfred. In the merry days of the New Monthly
Magazine of some thirty years since, we read : — " The
Oriental — or, as the hackney-coachmen call it, the Hori-
zontal Club— in Hanover-square, outdoes even Arthur's for
quietude. Placed at the. comer of a cul-de-sac — at least as
far as carriages are concerned, and in; a part of the square to
which nobody not proceeding to one of four houses which
occupy that particular side ever thinks of going, its little
windows, looking upon nothing, give the idea of mingled
dulness and inconvenience. From the outside it looks like
a prison; — enter it, it looks like an hospital, in which a
smell of curry-powder pervades the ' wards, '-^wards filled
with venerable patients dressed in nankeen shorts, yellow
stockings, and gaiters, and faces to match. There may still
be seen pigtails in all their pristine perfection. It is the
region of calico shirts, returned writers, and guinea-pigs
grown into bores. Such is the nabobery, into which Harley-
street, Wimpole-street, and Gloucester-place, daily empty
their precious stores of bilious humanity." Time has
blunted the point of this satiric picture, the individualities of
which had passed away, even before the amalgamation of
the Oriental with the Alfred.
THE A THEN^UM CL UB. 205
The Oriental Club was established in 1814, by Sir Jchn
Malcolm, the traveller and brave soldier. The members,
were noblemen and gentlemen associated with the admi-
nistration of our Eastern empire, or who have travelled or
resided in Asia, at St. Helena, in Egypt, at the Cape of
Good Hope, the Mauritius, or at Constantinople.
The Oriental was erected in 1827-8, by B. and P. Wyatt,
and has the usual Chib characteristic of only one tier of
windows above the ground-floor ; the interior has since been
redecorated and embellished by CoUman.
The Athenaeum Club.
The Athenseum presents a good illustration of the present
Club system, of which it was one of the earliest instances.
By reference to the accounts of the Clubs existing about the
commencement of the present century, it will be seen how
greatly they differed, both in constitution and purpose, from
the modem large subscription-houses, called Clubs ; and
which are to be compared with their predecessors only in so
far as every member must be balloted for, or be chosen by
the consent of the rest. Prior to 1824 there was only one
institution in the metropolis particularly devoted to the
association of Authors, Literary Men, Members of Parlia-
ment, and promoters generally of the Fine Arts. AH other
establishments were more or less exclusive, comprising gentle
men who screened themselves in the windows of White's,
or Members for Counties, who darkened the doors ov
Brookes's ; or they were dedicated to the Guards, or " men
of wit and pleasure about town." It is true that the Royal
Society had its convivial meetings, as we have already
narrated ; and small Clubs of members of other learned
Societies were held ; but with these exceptions, there were
no Clubs where individuals known for their scientific or
literary attainments, artists of eminence in any class of the
Fine Arts, and noblemen and gentlemen distinguished as
2o6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
patrons of science, literature, and the arts, could unite in
friendly and encouraging intercourse ; and professional
men were compelled either to meet at taverns, or to be
confined exclusively to the Society of their particular profes-
sions.
To remedy this, on the 17th of February, 1824, a pre-
liminary meeting, — comprising Sir Humphry Davy, the
Right Hon. John Wilson Croker, Sir Francis Chantrey,
Richard Heber, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Dr. Thomas Young,
Lord Dover, Davie Gilbert, the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Henry
Halford, Sir Walter Scott, Joseph Jekyll, Thomas Moore,
and Charles Hatchett, — ^was held in the apartments of the
Royal Society, at Somerset House; at this meeting Pro-
fessor Faraday assisted as secretary, and it was agreed to
institute a Club to be called " The Society," subsequently
altered to " The Athenaeum." " The Society " first met in
the Clarence Club-house ; but, in 1830, the present mansion,
designed by Decimus Burton, was open to the members.
The Athenaeum Club-house is built upon a portion of the
court-yard of Carlton House. The architecture is Grecian,
with a frieze exactly copied from the Panathenaic procession
in the frieze of the Parthenon, — the flower and beauty of
Athenian youth, gracefully seated on the most exquisitely
sculptured horses, which Flaxman regarded as the most
precious example of Grecian power in the sculpture of
animals. Over the Roman Doric entrance-portico is a
colossal figure of Minerva, by Baily, R.A. ; and the interior
has some fine casts of chefs-d'oeuvre of sculpture. Here the
architecture is grand, massive, and severe. The noble
Hall, 35 feet broad by 57 feet long, is divided by scaglidla
columns and pilasters, the capitals copied from the Choragic
Monument of Lysicrates. This is the Exchange, oi- Lounge,
where the members meet. The floor is the Marmorato
Veneziano mosaic. Over each of the two fire-places, in a
niche, is a statue — the Diana Robing and the. Venus
Victrix, selected by Sir Thomas Lawrence — a very fine
THE ATffEN^UM CLUB. 207
contrivance for sculptural display. . The Library is the best
Club Library in London : it comprises the most rare and
valuable works, and a very considerable sum is annually
expended upon the collection, under the guidance of
members most eminent in literature and science. Above
the mantelpiece is a portrait of George IV., painted by
Lawrence, upon which he was engaged but a few hours
previous to his decease ; the last bit of colour this celebrated
artist ever put upon canvas being that of the hilt and sword-
knot of the girdle ; thus it remains unfinished. The book-
cases of the drawing-rooms are crowned with busts of
British worthies. Among the Club gossip it is told that a
inember who held the Library faith of the promise of the
Fathers, and was anxious to consult their good works, one
day asked, in a somewhat fahiiliar tone of acquaintance with
these respectable theologians, " Is Justin Martyr here ?" —
"I do not know," was the reply; "I will refer to the
list; but I do not think that gentleman is one of our
members "
Mr. Walker, in his very pleasant work, "The Original,''
was one of the first to show how by the then new system of
Clubs the facilities of living were wonderfully increased,
whilst the expense was greatly diminished. For a few
pounds a year, advantages are to be enjoyed which no
fortunes, except the most ample, can procure. The only
Club (he continues) I belong to is the Athenaeum, which
consists of twelve hundred members, amongst v/hom are to
be reckoned a large proportion of the most eminent persons
in the land, in every line, — civil, military, and ecclesiastical,
— ^peers spiritual and temporal (ninety-five noblemen and
twelve bishops), commoners, men of the learned professions,
those connected with science, the arts, and commerce, in all
its principal branches, as well as the distinguished who do
not belong to any particular class. Many of these are to be
met with every day, living with the same freedom as in their
•own houses, for 25 guineas entrance, and 6 guineas a year.
2o8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: -
Every member has the command of an excellent library,
with maps ; of newspapers, English and foreign ; the prin-
cipal periodicals ; writing materials, and attendance. The
building is a sort of palace, and is kept with the same exact-
ness and comfort as a private dwelling. Every member is
master, without any of the trouble of a master : he can come
when he pleases, and stay away when he pleases, without
anything going wrong; he has the command of regular
servants, without having to pay or manage them ;. he can
have whatever meal or refreshment he wants, at all hours,
and served up as in his own house. He orders just what he
pleases, having no interest to think of but his own. In
short, it is impossible to suppose a greater degree of liberty
in: living.
" Clubs, as far as my observation goes, are favourable to
economy of time. There is a fixed place to go to, every-
thing is served with comparative expedition, and it is not
customary in general to remain long at table. They are
favourable to temperance. It seems that when people can
freely please tliemselves, and when they have an oppor-
tunity of living simply, excess is seldom committed. From
an account I have of the expenses at the Athenaeum in the
year 1832, it appears that 17,323 dinners cost, on an
average, 2s. g%d. each, and that the average quantity of
wine for each person was a small fraction more than half-
a-pint.
"The expense of building the Club-house was 35,000/.,
and 5,000/. for furnishing ; the plate, Hnen, and glass cost
2,500/. ; library, 4,000/, and the stock of wine in cellar is
usually worth about 4,000/ : yearly revenue about 9,000/
The economical management of the Club has not, how-
ever, been effected without a few sallies of humour. In
1834, we read : " The mixture of Whigs, Radicals, savants,
foreigners, dandies, authors, soldiers, sailors, lawyers, artists,
doctors, and Members of both Houses of Parliament, toge-
ther with ar exceedingly good average supply of bishops,
Lion-s Head Box at Button's Coffee House. {Designed by Hogarth.)
White Horse, Chelsea. (Built about 1 5 50. )
THE ATHENMUM CLUB. 209
render the ni'elange very agreeable, despite of some two or
three bores, who ' continually do dine ; ' and who, not satis-
fied with getting a f)S. dinner for 3^. 6^., ' continually do
complain.' "
Mr. Rogers, the poet, was one of the earliest members
of the Athenffium, and innumerable are the good things,
though often barbed with bitterness, which are recorded of
him.
Some years ago, judges, bishops, and peers used to con-
gregate at the Athenaeum ; but a club of twelve hundred
members cannot be select. " Warned by the necessity of
keeping up their number and their funds, they foolishly set
abroad a report that the finest thing in the world was to
belong to the Athenseum ; and that an opportunity offered
for hobno bbing with archbishops, and hearing Theodore
Hook's jokes. Consequently all the little crawlers and
parasites, and gentility-hunters, from all corners of London,
set out upon the creep ; and they crept in at the windows,
and they crept down the area steps, and they crept in unseen
at the doors, and they crept in under bishops' sleeves, and
they crept in in peers' pockets, and they were blovm in by the
winds of chance. The consequence has been, that ninety-
nine hundredths of this Club are people who rather seek to
obtain a sort of standing by belonging to the Athenseum,
than to give it lustre by the talent of its members. Nine-
tenths of the intellectual writers of the age would be cer-
tainly black-balled by the dunces. Notwithstanding all
this, and partly on account of this, the Athenseum is a capital
Club : the library is certainly the best Club library in
London, and is a great advantage to a man who writes." *
Theodore Hook was one of the most clubbable men of
his time. After a late breakfast^ he would force and strain
himself at large arrears of literary toil, and then drive
rapidly from Fulham to town, and pay a visit " first to one
* New Quarterly Revtew.
P
210 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Club, where, the centre of an admiring circle, his intellec-
tual faculties were again upon the stretch, and again aroused
and sustained by artificial means : the same thing repeated
at a second — the same drain and the same supply — ballot
or general meeting at a third, the chair taken by Mr. Hook,
who addresses the members, produces the accounts, audits
and passes them — gives a succinct statement of the pro-
spects and finances of the Society — parries an awkward
question — extinguishes a grumbler — confounds an opponent
— proposes a vote of thanks to himself, seconds, carries it,
— and returns thanks, with a vivacious rapidity that entirely
confounds the unorganised schemes of the minority — then a
chop in ; the committee-room, and just one tumbler of
brandy-andrwater, or two, and we fear the catalogue would
not always close there."
At the A.thenseum, Hook was a great card ; and in a note
to the sketch of him in the Quarterly Review, it is stated
that the number of dinners at this Club fell off by upwards
of three hundred per annum after Hook disappeared from
his favourite corner, near the door of the coffee-room. That
is to say, there must have been some dozens of gentlemen
who chose to dine there once or twice every week of the
season, merely for the chance of Hook's, being there, arid
permitting them to draw their chairs to his little table in
the course of the evening. Oftheextent to which he suffered <
from this sort of invasion, there are several bitter oblique
complaints in his novels. The corner alluded to will, we
suppose, long- retain the name which it derived from him —
Temperance Corner. Many grave and dignified persons,ges
being frequent guests, it would hardly have been seemly to
be calling for repeated supplies of a certain description;
but the waiters well understood : what the oracle, of the
corner meant by "Another glass of toast-and-water," or,
" A little more lemonade." ;;
The University Club,
In Suffolk-street, Pall Mali- East; was instituted in 1824,
and the Club-house, designed by Deering and Wilkins,
architects, was opened 1826. It is of the Grecian Doric
and Ionic orders ; and the staircase walls have casts from
the Parthenon frieze. The Club consists chiefly of Members
of Parliament who have received University education ;
several of the judges, and a large number of beneficed
clergymen. This Club has the reputation of possessing
the best stocked wine-cellar in London, which is of no small
importance to Members, clerical or lay.
Economy of Clubs.
Thirty years ago, Mr. Walker took some pains to disabuse
the public mind of a false notion that feiriale society was
much affected by the multiplication of Clubs.,« He remarks
that in those hours of the evening, which are peculiarly
dedicated to society, he could scarcely count twenty mem-
bers in the suite of rooms upstairs at the Athenaeum Club.
If female society be neglected, he contended that it was not
owing to the institution of Clubs, but more probably to the
long sittings of the House, of Commons, and to the want
of easy access to family circles. At the Athenaeum he never
heard it even hinted, that married men frequented it to the
prejudice of their domestic habits, or that bachelors were
kept from general society. Indeed, Mr. Walker maintains,
that Clubs are a preparation and not a substitute for domestic
life. Compared with the previous system of living, they
induce habits of economy, temperance, refinement, regularity,
and good orden ., Still, a Club only offers an imitation of
the comforts of home, but only an imitation, and one which
will never supersede the reality.
However, the question became a subject for pleasant
p a
212 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
satire. Mrs. Gore, in one of her clever novels, has these
shrewd remarks : — " London Clubs, after all, are not bad
things for family men. They act as conductors to the
storms usually hovering- in the air. The man forced to
remain at home and vent his crossness on his wife and chil-
dren, is a much worse animal to bear with, than the man who
grumbles his way to Pall Mall, and not daring to swear at the
Club-servants, or knock about the club-furniture, becomes
socialized into decency. Nothing like the subordination exer-
cised in a community of equals for reducing a fiery temper."
Mr. Hood, in his Comic Anmtal for 1838, took up the
topic in his rich vein of comic humour, and here is the
amusing result: —
CLUBS.
TURNED UP BY A FEMALE HAND.
Of all the modem schemes of Man
That time has brought to bear,
A plague upon the wicked plan
That parts the wedded pair !
My female friends they all agree
They hardly know their hubs ;
And heart and voice unite with me,
" We hate the name of Clubs !"
One selfish course the Wretches keep ;
, They come at morning chimes ;
To snatch a few short hours of sleep —
Rise — breakfast — read the Times —
Then take their hats, and post away,
Like Clerks or City scrubs,
k. And no one sees them all the day, —
They live, eat, drink, at Clubs !
With Rundell, Dr. K., or Glasse,
And such Domestic books.
They once put up, but now, alas !
It's hey ! for foreign cooks,
" When will you dine at home, my dove f
I say to Mr. Stubbs.
" When Cook can make an omelette, love—
An omelette like the Clubs 1"
ECONOMY OF CL UBS. i< \ 3
Time was, their hearts were only placed
On snug domestic schemes,
The book for two — united taste,
And such connubial dreams, —
Friends, dropping in at close of day,
To singles,- doubles, rubs, —
A little music, — then the tray, —
And not a word of Clubs !
But former comforts they condemn ;
French kickshaws they discuss,
And take their wine, the wine takes them,
And then they favour us ; —
From some offence they can't digest.
As cross as bears with cubs.
Or sleepy, dull, and queer, at best —
That's how they come from Clubs !
It's veiy fine to say, " Subscribe
To Andrews' — can't you read ?"
When wives, the poor neglected tribe,
Complain how they proceed !
They'd better recommend at once
Philosophy and tubs, —
A woman need not be a dunce.
To feel the wrong of Clubs.
A set of savage Goths and Picts
Would seek us now and then, —
They're pretty pattern- Benedicts
To guide our single men !
Indeed, my daugliters both declare
" Their Beaux shall not be subs
To White's, or Black's, oi" anywhere, —
They've seen enough of Clubs !"
They say, without the marriage ties.
They can devote their hours
To catechize, or botanize —
Shells, Sunday Schools, and flow'rs —
Or teach a Pretty Poll new words,
Tend Covent Garden shrubs.
Nurse dogs and chirp to little birds —
As Wives do since the Clubs.
214 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Alas ! for those departed days
Of social wedded life,
When married folks had married ways,
And liv'd like Man and Wife !
Oh ! Wedlock then was pick'd by none —
As safe a lock as Chubb's !
But couples, that should be as one,
Are now the Two of Clubs !
Of all the modern schemes of Man
That time has brought to bear,
A plague upon the wicked plan.
That parts the wedded pair !
My wedded friends they all allow
They meet with slights and snubs.
And say, " They have no husbands now.
They're married to the Clubs !"
The satire soon reached the stage. About five-and-
twenty years since there was produced, at the old wooden
Olympic Theatre, Mr. Mark Lemon's farce, The Ladies^
Club, which proved one of the most striking pieces of the
time. "Though in 1840 Clubs, in the modern sense of the
word, had been for some years established, they were not
quite recognised as social necessities, and the complaints of
married ladies and of dowagers with marriageable daughters,
to the effect that these institutions caused husbands to
desert the domestic hearth and encouraged bachelors to
remain single, expressed something of a general feeling.
Public opinion was ostentatiously on the side of the ladies
and against the Clubs, and to this opinion Mr. Mark Lemon
responded when he wrote his most successful farce."*
Here are a few experiences of Club-life. "There are
many British lions in the coffee-room who have dined off a
joint and beer, and have drunk a pint of port wine after-
wards, and whose bill is but 4J. 3(/. One great luxury in a
modem Club is that there is no temptation to ostentatious
* Times journal.
ECONOMY OF CLUBS. 215
•expense. At an hotel there is an inclination in some
natures to be 'a good custumer.' At a Club the best men
are generally the most frugal — they are afraid of being
thought like that little snob, Calicot, who is always sur-
rounded by fine dishes and expensive \rtnes (even when
aJone), and is always in loud talk with the butler, and in
correspondence with the committee about the cook. Calicot
is a rich man, with a large bottle-nose, and people black-
ball his friends.
" For a home, a man must have a large Club, where the
members are recruited from a large class, where the funds
are in a good state, where a large number every day break-
fast and dine, and where a goodly number think it necessary
to be on the books and pay their subscriptions, although
they do not use the Club. Above all, your home Club should
be a large Club, because, eveii if a Club be ever so select,
the highest birth and most unexceptionable fashion do not
prevent a man from being a bore. Every Club must have its
bores ; but in a large Club you can get out of their way."*
" It is a vulgar error to regard a Club as the rich man's
public-house: it bears no analogy to a public-house : it is as
much the private property of its members as any ordinary
•dwelling-house is the property of the man who built it.
" Our Clubs are thoroughly characteristic of us. We are
-a fraud people, — it is of no use denying it,— and have a
horror of indiscriminate association ; hence the exclusive-
ness of our Clubs.
"We are an economical people, and love to obtain the
-greatest possible amount of luxury at the least possible ex-
pense : hence at our Clubs we dine at prime cost, and
-drink the finest wines at a price which we should have to
-pay for slow poison at a third-rate inn.
" We are a domestic people, and hence our Clubs afford us
^11 the comforts of home, when we are away from home, or
* New Quarterly Review.
8I6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
when we have none. Finally, we are a quarrelsome people,
and the Clubs are eminently adapted for the indulgence
of that amiable taste. A book is kept constantly open to
receive the out-pourings of our ill-humour against all persons
and things. The smokers quarrel with the non-smokers;
the billiard-players wage war against those who don't play ;
and, in fact, an internecine war is constantly going on upon
every conceivable trifle ; and when we retire exhausted from
the fray, sofas and chaises longues are everywhere at hand,
whereon to repose in extenso. The London Clubs are cer-
tainly the abodes of earthly bliss, yet the ladies won't
think so."*
The Union Club.
This noble Club-house, at the south-west angle of Trafal-
gar-square, was erected in 1824, from designs by Sir Robert
Smirke, R.A. It is much less ornate than the Club-houses
of later- date; but its apartments are spacious and handsome,
and it faces one of the finest open spaces in the metropolis.
As its name implies, it consists of politicians, and professional
and mercantile men, without reference to partj opinions ;
and, it has been added, is "a resort of wealthy citizens, who
just fetch Charing Cross to inhale the fresh air as it is drawn
from the Park through the funnel, by Berkeley House, out
of Spring Gardens, into their bay-window."
James Smith, one of the authors of the " Rejected Ad-
dresses," was a member of the Union, which he describes as
chiefly composed of merchants, lawyers, members of Parlia-
ment, and of " gentlemen at large." He thus sketches a day's
life here. " At three o'clock I walk to the Union Club, read
the journals, hear Lord John Russell deified or diablerized,
do the same with Sir Robert Peel or the Duke of Wellirigton,
and then join a knot of conversationists by -the fire till six
o'clock. We then and there discuss the Three per Cent.
The Builder.
THE UNION CLUB. 217
Consols (some of us preferring Dutch Two-and-a-half per
Cents.), and speculate upon the probable rise, shape, and
cost of the New Exchange. If Lady Harrington happen to
drive past our window in her landau, we compare her
equipage to the Algerine Ambassador's ; and when politics
happen to be discussed, rally Whigs, Radicals, and Conserva-
tives alternately, but never seriously, such subjects having
a tendency to a-eate acrimony. At six, the room begins to
be deserted; wherefore I adjourn to the dining-room, and
gravely looking over the bill of fare, exclaim to the waiter,
' Haunch of mutton and apple-tart !' These viands dis-
patched, with the accompanying liquids and water, I mount
upward to the library, take a book and my seat in the arm-
chair, and read till nine. Then call for a cup of coffee and
a biscuit, resuming my book till eleven ; afterwards return
home to bed." The smoking-room is a very fine apartment.
One of the grumbling members of the Union was Sir
James Aylott, a two-bottle man; one day, observing Mr.
James Smith furnished with half-a-pint of sherry. Sir James
eyed his cruet with contempt, and exclaimed: "So, I see
you have got one of those d — d Ufe preservers."
The Club has ever been famed for its cuisine, upon the
strength of which, we are told that next door to the Club-
house, in Cockspur-street, was established the Union Hotel,
which speedily became renowned for its turtle ; it was
opened in 1823, and was one of the best appointed hotels
of its day ; and Lord Panmure, a gourmet of the highest
order, is said to have taken up his quarters in this hotel,
for several successive seasons, for the sake of the soup.*
'London Clubs, 1853," p. 75.
2l8
The Garrick Club.
Mr. Thackeray was a hearty lover of London, and has
left us many evidences of his sincerity. He greatly
favoured Covent Garden, of which he has painted this
clever picture, sketched from "the Garden," where are
annually paid for fruits and vegetables some three millionf
sterling :—
" The two great national theatres on one side, a church-
yard full of mouldy but undying celebrities on the other ; a
fringe of houses studded in every part with anecdote and
history ; an arcade, often more gloomy and deserted than a
cathedral aisle ; a rich cluster of brown old taverns — one of
them filled with the counterfeit presentment of many actors
long since silent, who scowl or smile once more from the
canvas upon the grandsons of their dead admirers ; a some-
thing in the air which breathes of old books, old pictures,
old painters, and old authors; a place beyond all other
places one would choose in which to hear the chimes at
midnight; a crystal palace — the representative of the
present — ^which peeps in timidly from a comer upon many
things of the past ; a withered bank, that has been sucked
dry by a felonious clerk; a squat building, with a hundred
columns and chapel-looking fronts, which always stands
knee-deep in baskets, flowers, and scattered vegetables ; a
common centre into which Nature showers her choicest
gifts, and where the kindly fruits of the earth often nearly
choke the narrow thoroughfares ; a population that never
seems to sleep, and that does all in its power to prevent
others sleeping ; a place where the very latest suppers and
the earliest breakfasts jostle each other on the footways —
such is Covent-Garden Market, with some of its surrounding
features."
About a century and a quarter ago, the parish of St. Paul
was, according to John Thomas Smith, the only fashionable
THE GARRICK CLUB. 219
part of the town, and the residence of a great number of
persons of rank and title, and artists of the first eminence ;
and also from the concourse of wits, literary characters, and
other men of genius, who frequented the numerous coffee-
houses, wine and cider cellars, jelly-shops, etc., within its
boundaries, the list of whom particularly includes the
eminent names of Butler, Addison, Sir Richard Steele,
Otway, Dryden, Pope, Warburton, Gibber, Fielding,
Churchill, Bdlingbroke, and Dr. Samuel Johnson; Rich,
Woodward, Booth, Wilkes, Garrick, and Mackhii'j Kitty
Glive, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Pritchard, the Duchess of
Bolton, Lady Derby, Lady Thurlow, and the Duchess of
St Alban's ; Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir
James Thornhill ; Vandevelde, Zincke, Lambert, Hogarth,
Hayman, Wilson, Dance, Meyer, etc. The name of Samuel
Foote should be added.
Although the high fashion of the old place has long since
ebbed away, its theatrical celebrity remains ; and the locality
is storied with the dramatic associations of two centuries.
The Sublime Society of Steaks have met upon this hallowed
ground through a century ; and some thirty years ago there
was established in the street leading from the north-west
angle of Covent-Garden Market, a Club, bearing the name
of our greatest actor. Such was the Garrick Club, instituted
in 1831, at No. 35, King-street, "for the purpose of bringing
together the ' patrons ' of the drama and its professors, and
also for offering literary men a rendezvous ; and the mana-
gers of the Club have kept those general objects steadily in
view. Nearly all the leading actors are members, and there
are few of the active literary men of the day who are not
upon the list. The large majority of the association is
composed of the representatives of all the best classes of
society. The number of the members is limited, and the
character of the Club is social, and therefore the electing
committee is compelled to exercise very vigilant care, for it
is clear that it would be better that ten unobjectionable men
220 CLUB LIFE QF LONDON.
should be excluded than that^ one terrible bore should be
admitted. The prosperity of the Club, and the eagerness to
obtain admission to it, are the best proofs of its healthy
management ; and few of the cases of grievance alleged
against the direction will bear looking into."
The house in King-street was, previous to its occupation
by the Garrick men, a family hotel: it was rendered toler-
ably commodious, but in course of time it was found
insufficient for the increased number of members ; and in
1864 the Club removed to a new house built for them a
little more westward than the old one. But of the old
place, inconvenient as it was, will long be preserved the
interest of association. The house has since been taken
down ; but its memories are embalmed in a gracefully
written paper, by Mr. Shirley Brooks, which appeared in
the Illustrated London News, immediately before the re-
moval of the Club to their new quarters; and is as follows:
"From James Smith (of "Rejected Addresses") to
Thackeray, there is a long series of names of distinguished
men who have made the Garrick their favourite haunt, and
whose memories are connected with those rooms. The
visitor who has had the good fortune to be taken through
them, that he might examine the unequalled collection of
theatrical portraits, will also retain a pleasant remembrance
of the place. He will recollect that he went up one side of
a double flight of stone steps from the street, and entered a
rather gloomy hall, in which was a fine bust of Shakspeare,
by Roubiliac, and some busts of celebrated actors ; and he
may have noticed in the hall a tablet recording the obliga-
tion of the Club to Mr. Dujrrant, who bequeathed to it the
pictures collected by the late Charles Mathews. Conducted
to the left, the visitor found himself in the strangers' dining-
room, which occupied the whole of the ground-floor. This
apartment, where, perhaps, more, pleasant dinners had been
given than in any room in London, was closely hung with
pictures. The newest was Mr. O'Neil's admirable likeness
THE GARRICK CLUB. 221
of Mr. Keeley, and it hung over the fireplace in the front
room, near Sir Edwin Landseer's portrait of Charles Young.
There were many very interesting pictures in this room,
among them a Peg Woffington ; Lee (the author of the
Bedlam Tragedy, in nineteen acts) ; Mr. Pritchard, and Mr.
Garrick, an admirable illustration of
Pritchard's genteel, and Garrick six feet liigh ;
a most gentlemanly one of Pope the actor, Garrick again as
Macbeth in the courtrdress, two charming little paiiitings of
Miss Poole when a child-performer, the late Frederick
Yates, Mrs. Davison (of rare beauty), Miss Lydia ICelly,
and a rich store besides. The stranger Would probably be
next conducted through a long passage until he reached the
smoking-rooni, which was not a cheerful apartmeint by day-
light, and empty ; but which at night, and full, was thought
the most cheerful apartment in town. It was adorned with
gifts from artists who are members of the Club. Mr.
Stanfield had given a splendid sea-piece, with a wash of
waves that set one coveting an excursion ; and Mi. David
Roberts had given a large and noble painting of Baalbec,
one of his finest works. These great pictures occupied two
sides of the room, and the other walls were similarly orna-
mented. Mrs. Stirling's bright face looked down upon the
smokers, and there was a statuette of one who loved the
room — the author of * Vanity Fair.'
"The visitor was then brought back to the hall, and
taken upstairs to the drawing-room floor. On the wall as he
passed he would observe a vast picture of Mr. Charles
Kemble (long a member) as Macbeth, and a Miss O'Neil as
Juliet. He entered the coffee-room, as it was called, which
was the front room, looking into King-street, and behind
which was the morning-room, for newspapers and writing,
and in which was the small but excellent library, rich in
dramatic works. The coffee-room was devoted to the
members' dinners ; and the late Mr. Thackeray dined for the
222 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
last time away from home at a table in a niche in which
hung the scene from The Clandestine Marriagtj where Lord
Ogleby is preparing to join the ladies. Over the fireplaide
was another scene from the same play ; and on the mantel-
piece were Garrick's candlesticks, Kean's ring, and some
other relics of interest. The paintings in this room were
very valuable. There was Foote, by Reynolds ; a Sheridan ;
John Kemble ; Charles Kemble as Charles II. (under which
picture he often sat in advanced life, when he in no degree
resembled the audacious, stalwart king in the painting);
Mrs, Charles Kemble, in male attire; Mrs. Fitzwilliam;
Charles Matthews, plre; a fine, roystering Woodward,
reminding one of the rattling times of stage chivalry and
' victorious Burgundy ;' and in the moming-room was a
delightful Kitty Clive, another Garrick, and, near the
ceiling, a row of strong faces of by-gone days — Cooke the
strongest.
' ' On the second floor were numerous small and very charac-
1;ej:istic portraits ; and in a press full of large folios was one
of the completest and most valuable of collections of
theatrical prints. In the card-room, behind this, were also
some very quaint and curious likenesses, one of Mrs. Liston,
as DollaloUa. There was a sweet face of ' the Prince's '
Perdita, which excuses his infatuation and aggravates his
treachery. When the visitor had seen these things and a few
busts, among them one of the late Justice Talfourd (an. old
member), he was informed that he had seen the collection
and he could go away, unless he were lucky enough to have
an iftvitation to dine in the strangers' room.
. " The new Club-house is a little more westward than the
old on.e,rbut not much, the Garrick having resolved to cling
to the classic region around Covent-Garden. It is. in
Garrick-gtreet from the west end of King-street to Cran-
bourn-street. It has a frontage of ninety-six feet to the
street ; but the rear was very difficult, from its shape, to
manage, and Mr. Marrable, the architect, has dealt very
THE GARRICK CLUB. 223
cleverly with the quaint form over which he had to lay out
his chambers. The house is Italian, and is imposing from
having been judiciously and not over-enrfched. In the hall
is a very beautiful Italian screen. The noble staircase is of
carved oak; at tlie top, a landing-place, from which is
entered the morning-room, the card-toom, and the. library.
All the apartments demanded by the habits of the day-^
some of them were not thought necessary in the days of'
Garrick — are, of course, provided. The kitchens and all
their arrangements are sumptuous, and the latest culinary
improvements are introduced. The system of sunlights
appears to be very complete, and devices for a perfect
ventilation have not been forgotten."
The pictures have been judiciously hung in the new
rooms : they include — EUiston as Octavian, by Singleton ;
Macklin (aged 93), by Opie ; Mrs. Pritchard, by Hayman ;
Peg Woffington, by R. Wilson; Nell Gwynne, by Sir Peter
Lely; Mrs. Abington; Samuel Foote, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds ; CoUey Gibber as Lord Foppington ; Mrs.
Bracegirdle; Kitty Clive; Mrs. Robinson, after Reynolds;
Garrick as Macbeth, and Mrs. Pritchard,. Lady Macbeth, by
Zoffany ; Garrick as Richard III., by Morland, sen. ; Young
Roscius, by Opie ; Quin, by Hogarth; Rich and his family,
by Hogarth ; iCharles Mathews, four characters, by Harlowe ;
Nat Lee, painted in Bedlam ; Anthony Leigh as the Spanish
Friar,, by Kneller; John Liston, by Clint; Munden,. by
Opie ; John Johnston, by Shee ; Lacy in three characters,
by Wright ;; Scene from Charles II., by Clint; Mrs.,Siddons
as Lady Macbeth, by Harlowe; J. P. Kemble as Cato, by
Lawrence ; Macready as Henry IV., by Jackson ; Edwinj
by ;Qainsborough ; the - twelve of the School of Gamck ;
Kean, Young, EUiston, and Mrs. Inchbald, by Harlowe;
Garrick as Richard III., by Loutherbourg ; Rich as Harle-
quin ; Moody and Parsons in The Committee, by Vander-
gucht ; King as Touchstone, by Zoffany ; Thomas Dogget ;
Henderson, by Gainsborough ; Elder Colman, by Reynolds ;
224 CLUB LIIE OF LONDON.
Mrs. Oldfield, by Kneller ; Mrs. Billington ; Nancy Dawson;
Screen Scene from The School for Scandal, as originally
cast; Scene from f^«/(ri?Pr^j(?rz/i?^(Garrick and Mrs. Gibber),
by Zoffany ; Scene from Macbelh (Henderson) ; Scene from
Love, Law, and Physic (Mathews, Liston, Blanchard, and
Emery), by Clint; Scene from The Clandestine Marriage
(King and Mr. and Mrs. Baddeley), by Zoffany ; Weston as
Billy Button, by Zoffany.
The following have been presented to the Club : — Busts
of Mrs. Siddons and J. P. Kemble, by Mrs. Siddons ; of
Garrick, Captain Marryat, Dr. Kitchiner, and Malibran;
Garrick, by RoubiUac ; Griffin and Johnson in The Alchemist^
by Von Bleeck ; Miniatures of Mrs. Robinson and Peg
Woffington ; Sketch of Kean, by Lambert ; Garrick Mulberry-
tree Snuff-box ; Joseph Harris as Cardinal Wolsey, from the
Strawberry Hill Collection; Proof Print of the Trial of
Queen Katherine, by Harlowe.
The Garrick men will, for the sake of justice, excuse the
mention of a short-coming : at the first dinner of the Club,
from the list of toasts was omitted " Shakspeare," who, it
must be allowed, contributed to Garrick's fame. David did
not so forget the Bard, as is attested in his statue by Roubiliac,
which, after adorning the Garrick grounds at Hampton,
was bequeathed by the grateful actor to the British Museum.
The Club were entertained at a sumptuous dinner by their
brother member. Lord Mayor Moon, in the Egyptian Hall
of the Mansion House, in 1855.
The Gin-punch made with iced soda-water is a notable
potation at the Garrick ; and the rightful patentee of the
invention was Mr. Stephen Price, an American gentleman,
well known on the turf, and as the lessee of Drury-lane
Theatre. His title has been much disputed —
Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice lis est ;
and many, misled by Mr. Theodore Hook's frequent and
liberal application of the discovery, were in the habit of
THE GARRICK CLUB. 225
ascribing it to him. But Mr. Thomas Hill, the celebrated
" trecentenarian " of a popular song, who was present at
Mr. Hook's first introduction to the beverage, has set the
matter at rest by a brief narration of the circumstances.
One hot afternoon, in July, 1835, the inimitable author of
" Sayings and Doings " (what a book might be made of his
own !) strolled into the Garrick in that equivocal state of
thirstiness which it requires something more than common
to quench. On describing the sensation, he was recom-
mended to make a trial of the punch, and a jug was
compounded immediately under the personal inspection of
Mr. Price. A second followed — a third, with the accom-
paniment of some chops — a fourth — a fifth — a sixth— at the
expiration of which Mr. Hook went away to keep a dinner
engagement at Lord Canterbury's. He always ate little,
and on this occasion he ate less, and Mr. Horace Twiss
inquired in a fitting tone of anxiety if he was ill. " Not
exactly," was the reply ; " but my stomach won't bear
trifling with, and I was tempted to take a biscuit and a glass
of sherry about three."
The receipt for the gin punch is as follows : — Pour half a
pint of gin on the outer peel of a lemon, then a little lemon-
juice, a glass of maraschino, about a pint and a quarter of
water, and two bottles of iced soda-water ; and the result
will be three pints of the punch in question.
Another choice spirit of the Garrick was the aforesaid
Hill, " Tom Hill," as he was called by all who loved and
knew him. He " happened to know everything that was
going forward in all circles — ^mercantile, political, fashionable,
literary, or theatrical ; in addition to all matters connected
with military and naval affairs, agriculture, finance, art, and
science — everything came alike to him." He was born in
J 760, and was many years a drysalter at Queenhithe, but
about 1 8 10 he lost a large sum of money by a speculation in
indigo; after which he retired, upon the remains of his
property, to chambers in the Adelphi. While at Queen-
Q
226 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
hithe, Jie found leisure to make' a fine coUeiction of old
books, chiefly old poetry, which were valued at six thousand
pounds. He greatly assisted' two friendless poets, Bloom^
field and Kirke White ; he also established The Monthly
Mirror, which brought, hirn much into connexion ' with
dramatic poets, actors, and managers, when he collected
theatrical curiosities and relics. Hill was the Hull ol
Hook's clever novel, " Gilbert Gurney," and the reputed,
original of Paul Pry, though, the latter is doubtful. The
standard joke about him was his age. He died in 1841, in
his eighty-first year, though Hook and all his friends always
affected to consider him as quite a Methuselah. James
Smith once said that it was impossible to discover his age,
for the parish register had been burnt in the fire of London ;
but Hook capped this: — ^^ Pooh, pooh I — (Tom's habitual
exclamation) — he's one of the Little HiUs that are spoken
of as skipping in the Psalms." As a mere octogenarian he
was wonderful enough. No human being would, from his
appearance, gait, or habits, would have guessed him to be
sixty. Till within three months of his death, Hill rose at
five usually, and brought the materials of his breakfast home
with him to the Adelphi from a walk to Billingsgate ; and at
dinner he would eat and drink like an adjutant -of fiveTand-
twenty: One secret was, that a " banyan-day " uniformly
followed a festivity. He then nursed himself most carefully
on tea and dry toast, tasted neither meat nor wine, and went
to bed by eight o'clock. But perhaps the grand secret was,
the easy, imperturbable serenity of his temper. .He had
been kind and generous in die day of his wealth ; and
though his evening was comparatively poor, his cheerful
heart kept its even beat. >
Hill was a patierit collector throughout his long life. His
old English pofetry, which Southey considered the rarest
assemblage in existence^ was dispersed in 1810 jaild, after
Hill's jdeath, his literary rarities and memorials occupied
Evans, of Pall Mall, a clear week to sell by auction: the
THE REFORM CLUB. zzj
autograph letters were very interesting, and among' the
hiemorials were Garrick's Shakspfiare Cup and a vase curved
from the Bard's mulberry-tree ; and a block of wood from
Pope's willow, at Twickenham.
Albert Smith was also of the Garrick, and usually dined
here before commencing his evening entertainments at the
Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly.
Smith was very clubbable, and with benevolent aims :
he was a leader of the Fielding Club, in Maiden-lane,
Covent Garden, which gave several amateur theatrical
representations towards the establishment of " a Fund for
the immediate relief of emergencies in the Literary or
Theatrical world ;" having already devoted a considerable
sum to charitable piuposes. This plan of relieving the
woes of others through our own pleasures is a touch of
nature which yields twofold gratification.
The Reform Club.
This political Club was established by Liberal Members
of the two Houses of Parliament, to aid the carrying of the
Reform Bill, 1 830-1 83 z. It was temporarily located in Great
George-street, and Gwydyr House, Whitehall, until towards
the close of 1837, when designs for a new Club-house were
submitted by the architects, Blore, Basevi, Cockerell,
Sydney SmirkCj and Barry. The design of' the latter was
preferred, and the site selected in Pall Mall, extending from
the spot formerly occupied by the temporary National
Gallery. (late the residence of Sir Walter Stirling), on one
side of the temporary Reform Club-house, over, the vacant
plot of ground oh the other side. The instructions were to
produce I a Club-house which would surpass all others in size
and magnificence; one which should combine all the
attractions of other Clubs, such as baths, billiard-rooms,
smoking-rooms, with the ordinary accommodations ; besides
the additional novelty of private chambers, or dormitories.
Q 2
228 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The frontage towards Pall Mall is about 135 feet, or nearly
equal to the frontage of the Athenaeum (76 feet) and the
Travellers' (74 feet); The style of the Reform is pure
Italian, the architect having taken some points from the
celebrated Famese Palace at Rome, designed by Michael
Angelo Buonarroti, in 1545, and built by Antonio Sangallo;
However, the resemblance between the two edifices has
been greatly overstated, it consisting only in both of them
being astylar, with columnar-decorated fenestration. The
exterior is greatly admired ; though it is objected, and with
reason, that the windows are too small. The Club-house
contains six floors and 134 apartments : the basement and
mezzanine below the street pavement, and the chambers
in the roof are not seen.
The points most admired are extreme simplicity and unity
of design, combined with very unusual richness. The
breadth of the piers between the windows contributes not a
little to that repose which is so essential to simplicity, and
hardly less so to stateliness. The string-courses are par-
ticularly beautiful, while the cornicione (68 feet from the
pavement) gives extraordinary majesty and grandeur to the
whole. The roof is covered with Italian tiles ; the edifice
is faced throughout with Portland stone, and is a very fine
specimen of masonry. In building it a strong scaffolding
was constructed, and on the top was laid a railway, upon
which was worked a traversing crane, movable along the
building either longitudinally or transversely; by which
means the stones were raised from the ground, and placed
on the wall with very little labour to the mason, who had
only to adjust the bed and lay the block.*
In the centre of the interior is a grand hall, 56ft. by 50,
(the entire height of the building,) resembling an Italian
cortile, surrounded by colonnades, below Ionic, and above
Corinthian ; the latter is a picture-gallery, where, inserted in
Civil En^neer and Architects' yoiirnal, 184^,
THE REFORM CLUB. 229
the^ scagliola walls, are whole-length portraits of emment
political Reformers ; while the upper colonnadehas rich floral
mouldings, and frescoes of Music, Poetry, Painting, and
Sculpture, by Parris. The floor of the hall is tessellated ;
and the entire roof is strong diapered flint-glass, executed
by Pellatt, at the cost of 600/. The staircase, like that of an
Italian palace, leads to the upper gallery of the hall, opening
into the principal drawing-room, which is over the coffee-
room in the garden-front, both being the entire length of
the building ; adjoining are a library, card-room, etc., over
the library and dining-rooms. Above are a billiard-room
and lodging-rooms for members of the Club ; there being a
separate entrance to the latter by a lodge adjoining the
Travellers' Club-house.
The basement comprises two-storied wine-cellars beneath
the hall ; besides the kitchen department, planned by Alexis
Soyer, originally chef-de-cuisine of the Club : it contains novel
employments of steam and gas, and mechanical applications
of practical ingenuity ; the inspection of which was long one
of the privileged sights of London. The cuisine, under
M. Soyer, enjoyed European fame. Soyer first came to
England on a visit to his brother, who vras then cook to the
Duke of Cambridge ; and at Cambridge House, Alexis
cooked his first dinner in England, for the then Prince
George. Soyer afterwards entered the service of various
noblemen, amongst others of Lord Ailsa, Lord Panmure,
etc. He then entered into the service of the Reform Club',
and the breakfast given by that Club on the occasion of the
Queen's Coronation obtained him high commendation. His
ingenuity gave a sort of celebrity to the great political ban-
quets given at the Reform. In his O'Connell dinner, the
soufflts d, la Clontarf wreiQ considered by gastronomes to be
a rich bit of satire. The banquet to Ibrahim Pacha, July 3,
1846, was another of Soyer's great successes, when Merlans
a I'Egyptienne, la Creme d'Egypte and \ I'Ibrahim Pacha,
mingled with Le Gateau Britannique k I'Amiral (Napier).
230 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Another famous banquet was that given to Sir C. Napier,
March 3, 1854, as Commander of the Baltic Fleet; and.the
banquet given July 20, 1850, to Viscount Palmerston, who
was a popular leader of the Reform, was, gastronomically as
well as politically, a brilliant triumph. It was upon this
memorable occasion that Mr, Bernal Osborne characterized
the Palmerston policy in this quotation : —
Warmed by the instincts of a knightly heart,
That roused at once if insult touched the realm.
He spumed each State-craft, each deceiving art,
And met his foes no vizor to his helm.
This proved his worth, hereafter be our boast —
Who hated Britons, hated him the most.
Lord Palmerston was too true an Englishman to be in-
sensible to " the pleasures, of the table," as attested by the
hospitahties of Cambridge House, during his administration.
One of his Lordship's political opponents, writing in 1836,
says: "Lord Palmerston is redeemed from the last extremity
of political degradation by his cook." A distinguished
member of the diplomatic body was once overheard- re-
marking to an Austrian nobleman upon the Minister's short-
comings in some respects, adding, " mais on dine fort bien
chez lui."
It is always interesting to read a foreigner's opinion of
English society. The following observations, by the Vis-
countess de Malleville, appeared originally in the Courrier
de r Europe, and preceded an account of the Reform. Com-
mencing with Clubs, the writer remarks :
" It cannot be denied that these assemblages, wealthy and
widely extended in their ramifications, selfish in principle,
but perfectly adapted to the habits of the nation, oifer
valuable advantages to those who have the good fortune to
be enrolled in them. , . . The social state and manners of
the country gave the first idea of them. The spirit of associa-
tion which is so inherent in the British character, did the
rest. It is only within the precincts of these splendid
THE REFORM CLUB. 231
edifices, where all the requirements of opulent life, all the
comforts and luxuries of princely habitations, are combined,
that we can adequately appreciate the advantages and the
complicated -results produced by such a system of associa-
tion. For an annual subscription, comparatively of small
amount, every member of a Club is admitted into a circle,
which is enlivened and renewed from time to time by the
accession of strangers of distinction. A well-selected and
extensive library, newspapers and pamphlets from all parts
of the world, assist him to pass the hours of leisure and
digestion. According as his tastes incline, a man may
amuse himself in the saloons devoted to play, to reading, or
to conversation. In a word, the happy man, who only goes
to get bis dinner, may drink the best wines out of the finest
cut-glass, and may eat the daintiest and best-cooked viands
ofi" the most costly plate, at such moderate prices as no
Parisian restaiirateur could afford. The advantages of a
Club do not end here : it becomes for each of its members
a second dcwnestic hearth, where the cares of business and
household annoyances cannot assail him. As a retreat
especially sacred against the visitations of idle acquaintances
and tiresome creditors — a sanctuary in which each member
feels himself in the society of those who act and sympathize
with him— the Club will ever remain a resort, tranquil,
elegant, and exclusive ; interdicted to the humble and to the
insignificant."
The writer then proceeds to illustrate the sumptuous
character of our new Club-houses by reference to the Reform.
" Unlike in most English buildings, the staircase is wide and
commodious, and calls to mind that of the Louvre. The
quadrangular apartment which terminates it, is surrounded
by spacious galleries ; the rich mosaic pavement, in which
the brilliancy of the colour is only surpassed by the variety
of the design — the cut-glass ceiling, supported by four rows
of marble pillars — all these things call to remembrance the
most magnificent apartments of Versailles in the days of the
232 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
great king and his splendours. This is the vestibule, which
is the grand feature of the mansion." The kitchen is then
described — "spacious as a ball-room, kept in the finest
order, and white as a young bride. All-powerful steam, the
noise of which salutes your ear as you enter, here per-
forms a variety of offices : it diffuses a uniform heat to large
rows of dishes, warms the metal plates upon which are dis-
posed the dishes that have been called for, and that are in
waiting to be sent above : it turns the spits, draws the water,
carries up the coal, and moves the plate like an intelligent
and indefatigable servant. Stay awhile before this octagonal
apparatus, which occupies the centre of the place. Around
you the water boils and the stew-pans bubble, and a little
further on is a movable furnace, before which pieces of
meat are converted into savoury rdtis; here are sauces and
gravies, stews, broths, soups, etc. In the distance are Dutch
ovens, marble mortars, lighted stoves, iced plates of metal
for fish ; and various compartments for vegetables, fruits,
roots, and spices. After this inadequate, though prodigious
nomenclature, the reader may perhaps picture to himself a
state of general confusion, a disordered assemblage, re-
sembling that of a heap of oyster-shells. If so, he is mis-
taken ; for, in fact, you see very little, or scarcely anything
of all the objects above described. The order of their
arrangement is so perfect, their distribution as a whole, and
in their relative bearings to one another, are all so intelli-
gently considered, that you require the aid of a guide to
direct you in exploring them, and a good deal of time to
classify in your mind all your discoveries.
" Let all strangers who come to London for business, or
pleasure, or curiosity, or for whatever cause, not fail to visit
the Reform Club. In an age of utilitarianism, and of the
search for the comfortable, like ours, there is more to be
learned here than in the ruins of the Coliseum, of the
Parthenon, or of Memphis."
233
The Carlton Club.
The Carlton is purely a political Club, and was founded
by the great Duke of Wellington, and a few of his most
intimate political friends. It held its first meeting in
Charles-street, St. James's, in the year 1831. In the follow-
ing year it removed to larger premises, Lord Kensington's,
in Carlton Gardens. In 1836, an entirely new house was
built for the Club, in Pail-Mall, by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. :
it was of small extent, and plain and inexpensive. As the
Club grew in numbers and importance, the building became
inadequate to its wants. In 1846, a very large addition was
made to it by Mr. Sydney Smirke; and in 1854, the whole
of the original ediiice was taken down, and rebuilt by Mr.
Smirke, upon a sumptuous scale j and it will be the largest,
though not the most costly Club-house, in the metropolis.
It is a copy of Sansovino's Library of St. Mark, at Venice :
the entablature of the Ionic, or upper order, is considerably
more ponderous than that of the Doric below, which is an
unorthodox defect. The faQade is highly enriched, and
exhibits a novelty, in the shafts of all the columns being e£
red Peterhead granite, highly polished, which, in contrast
with the dead stone, is objectionable : " cloth of frieze and
cloth of gold " do not wear well together. In the garden
front the pilasters, which take the place of columns in the
entrance front and flank, are of the same material as the
latter, namely, Peterhead granite, polished. Many predic-
tions were at first ventured upon as to the perishable nature
of the lustre of the polished granite shafts ; but these pre-
dictions have been falsified by time ; nine years' exposure
having produced no effect whatever on the polished surface.
Probably the polish itself is the protection of the granite,
by preventing moisture from hanging on the surface.
The Carlton contains Conservatives of every hue, from
the good old-fashioned Tory to the liberal progressist of the
234 CLUB LIFE OF LONDUiV.
latest movements, — ^men of high position in fortune and
politics.
Some thirty years ago, a Qtiarterly reviewer wrote : " The
improvement and multiplication of Clubs is the grand
feature of metropolitan progress. There are between twenty
and thirty of these admirable establishments, at which a
man of moderate habits can dine more comfortably for three
or four shillings (including half a pint of wine), than he
could have dined for four or five times that amount at the
coffee-houses and hotels, which were the habitual resort of
the bachelor class in the coixesponding rank of life during
the first quarter of the century. At some of the Clubs — the
Travellers', tlie Coventry, and the Carlton, for example —
the most finished luxury may be enjoyed at a very mode-
rate cost . The best judges are agreed that it is utterly
impossible to dine better than at the Carlton, when the cook
has fair notice, and is not 'hurried, or confused by a multi-
tude of orders. But great allowances must be made when
a simultaneous rush occurs from both Houses of Parliament;
and the caprices of individual members of such institutions
are sometimes extremely trying to the temper and reputation
of a chef."
The Conservative Club.
This handsome Club-house, which occupies a portion of
the site of the old Thatched House Tavern, 74, St. James's-
street, was designed by Sydney Smirke and George Basevi,
1845. The upper portion is Corinthian, with columns and
pilasters, and a frieze sculptured with the imperial crown
and oak-wreaths ; the lower order is Roman-Doric ; and the
wings are slightly advanced, with an enriched entrance-
porch north, and a bay-window south. The interior was
superbly decorated in colour by Sang : the coved hall, with
a gallery round it, and the domed vestibule above it, is a
fine specimen of German encaustic embellishment, in the
arches, soffites, spandrels, and ceilings ; and the hall-floor is
THE CONSERVATIVE CLUB. 235
tessellated, around a noble star of marqueterie. The even-
ing room, on the first floor, has an enriched coved ceiling,
and a beautiful frieze of the rose, shamrock, and thistle,
supported by scagliola Corinthian columns: the morning
room, beneath, is of the same dimensions, with Ionic pillars.
The library, in the upper story north, has columns and
pilasters with bronzed capitals. Beneath is the coffee-room.
Tlie kitchen is far more spacious than that of the Reform
Club. In the right wing is a large bay-window, whicli was
introduced as an essential to the morning room, affording
the lounger a view of Pall Mall and St. James's-street, and
the Palace gateway -, this introduction reminding us, by the
way, of Theodore Hook's oddly comparing the bay-window
of a coffee-house nearly on the same spot, to an obese old
gentleman in a white waistcoat. Hook lived for some time
in Cleveland-row : he used to describe ^e^ real London as
the space between Pall Mall on the south, Piccadilly north,
St. James's west, and the Opera-house east.
This is the second Club of the Conservative party, and
many of its chiefs are honorary members, but rarely enter
it : Sir-Robert Peel is said never to have entered this Club-
house except to view the interior. Other leaders have,
however, availed themselves of the Club influences to recruit
their ranks from its working strength. This has been
political ground for a century and a half; for here, at the
Thatched House Tavern, Swift met his political Clubs, and
dined with Tory magnates ; but with fewer appliances than
in the present day ; in Swift's time " the wine being always
brought by him that is president."*
* The Palace clock has connected with it an odd anecdote, which
we received from Mr. Vulliamy, of Pall Mall, who, with his family, as
predecessors, had been the royal clockmakers since 1743. When the
Palace Gate-house was repaired, in 1831, the clock was removed, and
not put up again. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, mlissing the
clock, memorialized William IV. for the replacement of the time-
236
The Oxford and Cambridge Club.
The Oxford and Cambridge Club-house, 71, Pall Mal^
for members of the two Universities, was designed by
Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., and his brother, Mr. Sydney
Smirke, 1835-8. The Pall Mall fagade is 80 feet in width
by 75 in height, and the rear lies over-against the court of
Marlborough House. The ornamental detail is very rich :
as the entrance-portico, with Corinthian columns ; the bal-
cony, with its panels of metal foliage ; and the ground-storey
frieze, and arms of Oxford and Cambridge Universities
over the portico columns. The upper part of the build-
ing has a delicate Corinthian entablature and balustrade;
and above the principal windows are bas-reliefs in panels,
executed in cement by Nicholl, from designs by Sir R.
Smirke, as follows: — Centre panel: Minerva and Apollo
presiding on Mount Parnassus ; and the River Helicon,
surrounded by the Muses. Extreme panels : Homer singing
to a warrior, a female and a youth; Virgil singing his
Georgics to a group of peasants. Other four panels : Milton
reciting to his daughter ; Shakspeare attended by Tragedy
and Comedy; Newton explaining his system ; Bacon, his
philosophy. Beneath the ground-floor is a basement of
offices, and an entresol or mezzanine of chambers. The
principal apartments are tastefully decorated ; the drawing-
room is panelled with papier m&cM ; and the libraries are
filled with book-cases of beautifully marked Russian birch-
keeper, when the King inquired why it was not restored ; the reply
was that the roof was reported unsafe to carry the weight, which His
Majesty having ascertained, he shrewdly demanded how, if the roof
were not strong enough to carry the clock, it was safe for the number of
persons occasionally seen upon it to witness processions, and the com-
pany on drawing-room days? There was no questioning the calcula-
tion ; the clock was forthwith replaced, and a minute-hand was added,
with new dials. (" Curiosities of London," p. 571.)
THE GUARDS CLUB. 237
wood. From the back library is a view of Marlborough
House and its gardens.
The Guards Club
Was formerly housed in St. James's-street, next Crockford's,
north; but, in 1850, they removed to Pall Mall, (No. 70.)
The new Club-house was designed for them by Henry
Harrison, and remarkable for its compactness and con-
venience, although its size and external appearance indicate
no more than a private house. The architect has adopted
some portion of a design of Sansovino's in the lower part or
basement.
The Army and Navy Club.
The Army and Navy Club-house, Pall Mall, corner of
George-street, designed by Pamell and Smith, was opened
February, 1851. The exterior is a combination from San-
sovino's Palazzo Cornaro, and Library of St. Mark at
Venice ; but varying in the upper part, which has Corinthian
columns, with windows resembling arcades filling up the
intercolumns ; and over their arched headings are groups of
naval and military symbols, weapons, and defensive armour
— ^very picturesque. The frieze has also effective groups
symbolic of the Army and Navy ; the cornice, likewise very
bold, is crowned by a massive balustrade. The basement,
from the Cornaro, is rusticated ; the entrance being in the
centre of the east or George-stroet front, by three open arches,
similar in character to those in the Strand front of Somerset
House ; the whole is extremely rich in ornamental detail.
The hall is fine ; the coffee-room is panelled with scaghola,
and has a ceiling enriched with flowers, and pierced for ven-
tilation by heated flues above ; adjoining is a room lighted
by a glazed plafond j next is the house dining-room, deco-
rated in the Munich style ; and more superb is the morning-
room, with its arched windows, and mirrors forming arcades
238 CZ UB LIFE OF L ONDVJsr.
and VistaS' inilumerable. A ihagiiificent stone staircase
leads to the library and reading-rooms'; and in the third
storey are billiard and card rooms ; and a smoking-room with
a lofty dome elaborately decorated in traceried Moresque.
The apartments are adorned with an equestrian por-
trait of Queen Victoria, painted by Grant, R.A. ; a piece ot
Gobelin tapestry (Sacrifice to Diana), presented to the Club
in 1849 by Prince Louis Napoleon; marble busts of Wil-
liam IV. and the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge; and
several life-size portraits of naval and military heroes. The
Cliib-house is provided with twenty lines of Whishaw's
Telekouphona, or Speaking Telegraph, which communicate
from the Secretary's room to the various apartments. The
cost of this superb edifice, exclusive of fittings, was 35,000/. ;
the plot of ground on which it stands cost the Club
52,000/.
The Club system has added several noble specimens of
ornate architecture to the metropolis ; to the south side of
Pall Mall these fine edifices have given a truly patrician air.
But, it is remarkable that while both parties political have
contributed magnificent edifices towards the metropolis and
their opinions ; while the Conservatives can show with pride
two splendid piles, and the Liberals at least one handsome
one; while the Army and Navy have recently a third palace —
the most successful of the three they can boast ; while ' the
Universities, the ' sciences, even our Lidian empire, come
forward, the fashionable clubs, the aristocratic clubs, do
nothing for the general aspett of London, and have made
no move in a direciiOn where they ought to have been first.
Can anything be more paltry than that bay-window from
which the members of White's contemplate the cabstand
and the Welliiigton Tavern ? and yet a little management
migfht make that house worthy of its unparalleled situation;
and if it were extended to Piccadilly, it would be the finest
thing of its kind in Europe.
239
The Junior United Service Club,
At the comer of Charles-street and Regentstreet, was
erected in 1855-57, Nelson and James, architects, and has
a most embellished exterior, enriched with characteristic
sculpture by John Thomas. The design is described in the
Builder as in the Italian style of architecture, the bay-
window in Regent-street forming a prominent feature in the
composition, above which is a sculptured group allegorical
of the Army and Navy. The whole of the sculpture and
ornamental details throughout the building are characteristic
of the profession of the members of the Club. The exterior
of the building is surmounted by a richly-sculptured cornice,
with modillion and dentils, and beneath it an elaborate frieze,
having medallions with trophies and other suitable emblems,
separated from each other by the rose, shamrock, and thistle.
The external walls of the building are of Bath stone, and
the balustrade around the area is of Portland stone ; and
upon the angle-pieces of this are bronze lamps, supported
by figures. The staircase is lighted from the top by a hand-
some, lantern, filled with painted glass, with an elaborate
coved and ornamented ceiling around. On the landing of
the half space are two pairs of caryatidal figures, and single
figures against the walls, supporting three semicircular arches,
and the whole is reflected by looking-glasses on the landing.
On . the upper landing of the staircase is the celebrated
picture, by Allan, of the Battle of Waterloo. Upon the first
floor fironting JRegent-street, and over the morning-room,
and of the same dimensions, is the evening-room, which is
also used as a picture-gallery, 24 feet high, with a bay-
window fronting Regent-street. In the gallery are portraits
of military, and naval commanders; Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert, and the Emperor Napoleon ; and an alle-
gorical group in silver, presented to the Club by his Imperial
Majesty.
240
Crockford's Club.
This noted gaming Club-house, No. 50, on the west side of
St. James's-street, over against White's, was built for Mr.
Crockford, in 1827 ; B. and P. Wyatt, architects.
Crockford started in life as a fishmonger, at the old bulk-
shop next-door to Temple Bar Without, which he quitted
for play in St. James's. " For several years deep play went
on at all the Clubs — ^fluctuating both as to locality and
amount — till by degrees it began to flag. It was at a low
ebb when Mr. Crockford laid the foundation of the most
colossal fortune that was ever made by play. He began
by taking Watier's old Club-house, in partnership with a
man named Taylor. They set up a hazard-bank, and won
a great deal of money, but quarrelled and separated at the
end of the first year. Taylor continued where he was, had
a bad year, and failed. Crockford removed to St. James's-
street, had a good year, and immediately set about building
the magnificent Club-house which bears his name. It rose
like a creation of Aladdin's lamp ; and the genii themselves
could hardly have surpassed the beauty of the internal deco-
rations, or furnished a more accomplished moltre d'hdtel'&iwi
Ude. To make the company as select as possible, the
establishment was regularly organized as a Club, and the
election of members vested in a committee. ' Crockford's '
became the rage, and the votaries of fashion, whether they
liked play or not, hastened to enrol themselves. The Duke
of Wellington was an original member, though (unlike
Bliicher, who repeatedly lost everything he had at play)
the great Captain was never known to play deep at any
game but war or politics. Card-tables were regularly
placed, and whist was played occasionally; but the aim,
end, and final cause of the whole was the hazard-bank,
at which the proprietor took his nightly stand, prepared
for all comers. Le Wellington des Joueurs lost 23,000/,
Dolly,
Mistress of " Dolly's Chop House,"
St. Paul's Cliurcliyard, 1700.
ir' j_ rrrr
frrf rrn Tr
frrr rrl-Lrrrr
The Rose, Fenchurch Street.
{From an Original Drawing injhi Kin^s Library.)
CROCKFORD-S CLUB. 241
at a sitting, beginning at twelve at night, and ending at
seven the following evening. He and three other noble-
men could not have lost less, sooner or later, than 100,000/.
apiece. Others lost in proportion (or out of proportion) to
their means j but we leave it to less occupied moralists, and
better calculators, to say how many ruined families went to
make Mr. Crockford a millionnairc — for a millionnaire he
ft-as in the English sense of the term, after making the largest
possible allowance for bad debts. A vast sum, perhaps half
a million, was sometimes due to him ; but as he won, all his
debtors were able to raise, and easy credit was the most fatal
of his lures. He retired in 1840, much as an Indian chief
retires from a hunting country where there is not game enough
left for his tribe, and the Club is now tottering to its fall."*
The Club-house consists of two wings and a centre, with
four Corinthian pilasters, and entablature, and a balustrade
throughout; the ground-floor has Venetian wmdows, and
the upper story, large French windows. The entrance-hall
Iiad a screen of Roman-Ionic scagliola columns with gilt
capitals, and a cupola of gilding and stained glass. The
library has Sienna columns and antae of the Ionic order, from
the Temple of Minerva Polias; the staircase is panelled with
scagliola, and enriched with Corinthian columns. The
grand drawing-room is in the style ot Louis Quatorze : azure
ground, with elaborate cove ; ceiHng enrichments bronze
gilt; door-way paintings d, la Watteau; and panelling, masks,
terminals, heavy gilt. Upon the opening of the Club-house,
it was described in the exaggerated style, as " the New Pan-
demonium J the drawing-rooms, or real Hell, consisting of
four chambers ; the first an ante-room, opening to a salooii
embellished to a degree which baffles description ; thence
to a small, curiously-formed cabinet, or boudoir, which opens
to the supper-room. All these rooms are panelled in the
most gorgeous manner, spaces being left to be filled up with
Edinburgh Review,
248 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
mirrors, silk or gold enrichments ; the ceilings being as
superb as the walls. A billiard-room on the upper floor
completes the number of apartments professedly dedicated
to the use of the members. Whenever any secret manoeuvre
is to be cai-ried on, there are smaller and more retired places,
both under this roof and the next, whose walls will tell no
tales."
. The cuisine at Crockford's was of the highest class, and
the members were occasionally very exigeant, and trying
to the patience of M. Ude. At one period of his presidency,
a ground of complaint, formally addressed to the Com-
mittee, was that there was an admixture of onion in the
souUse. Colonel Damer, happening to enter Crockford's
one evening to dine early, found Ude walking up and down
in a towering passion, and naturally inquired what was the
matter. "No matter. Monsieur le Colonel ! Did you see
that man who has just gone out ? Well, he ordered a red
mullet for his dinner. I made him a delicious little sauce
withmy own hands. The price of the mullet marked on the
carte was 2s, ; I asked dd. for the sauce. He refuses to pay
the dd. The imb'ecile apparently believes that the red
mullets come out of the sea with my sauce in their pockets !"
The imbkile might have retorted that they do come out of
the sea with their appropriate sauce in their pockets ; but
this forms no excuse for damaging the consummate genius of
a Ude.
The appetites of some Club members appear to entitle
them to be qz!^^ gourmands rather than\§»«mi?/.f. Of such
a member of Crockford's the following traits are related in
the Quarterly Review, No. no: — "The Lord-lieutenant
of one of the western counties eats a covey of partridges for
breakfast every day during the season; and there is a
popular M.P. at present [1836] about town who would eat a
covey of partridges, as the Scotchman ate a dozfen of beca-
ficos, for a whet, and feel himself astonished if his appetite
was not accelerated by the circumstance. Most people
CROCJCFORD'S CLUB. 243
must have seen or heard of a caricature representing a
gentleman at dinner upon a round of beef, with the landlord
looking on. 'Capital beef, landlord!' says the gentleman;
' a man may cut and come again here.' 'You may cut, sir,'
responds Boniface; 'but I'm blow'dif you shall come again.'
The person represented is the M.P. in question; and the
sketch is founded upon fact. He had Occasion to stay late
in the City, and walked into the celebrated Old Bailey beef-
shop on his return, where, according to the landlord's com-
putation, he demolished about seven pounds and a half of
solid meat, uith a proportionate allowance of greens. His
exploits at Crockford's have been such, that the founder of
that singular institution has more than once had serious
thoughts of giving him a guinea to sup elsewhere : and has
only been prevented by the fear of meeting with a rebuff
similar to that mentioned in 'Roderick Random' as received-
by the master of an ordinary, who, on proposing to buy off
an ugly customer, was informed by him that he had already
been bought off' by all the other ordinaries in town, and was
consequently under the absolute necessity of continuing to
patf6ni2ie the establishment"
Theodore Hook was a frequent visitor at Crockford's,
where play did not begin till late. Mr. Barbara describes
him, after going the round of the Clubs, proposing, with
some gay companion, to finish with half-an-hour at Crock-
ford's : " The half-hour is quadrupled, and the excitement of
the preceding evening was nothing to that which now
ensued." He had a receipt of his own to prevent being
exposed to the night air. "I was very ill," he once said,
" some months ago, and my doctor gave me particular orders
not to expose niyself to it ; so I come up [from Fulham]
eVery day to'Crbckford's, or some other place to dinner, and
I make it a rule on no account to go hoine again till about
four or five o'clock' in the morning."
After Crockford's dSath,* the Club-house was sold by his
executors for 2,900/:'; held on lease, of which thirty-two
R a
244 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
years were unexpired, subject to a yearly rent of 1,400/. It
is said that the decorations alone cost 94,000/. The in-
terior was re-decorated in 1849, and opened for the Military,
Naval, and County Service Club, but was closed again in
1 85 1. It has been, for several years, a dining-house— " the
Wellington."
Crockford's old bulk-shop, west of Temple-bar, was taken
down in 1846. It is engraved in " Archer's Vestiges of
London," part i. A view in 1795, '^ ^^ Crowle Pennant,
presents one tall gable to the street ; but the pitch of the
roof had been diminished by adding two imperfect side
gables. The heavy pents originally traversed over each of
the three courses of windows ; it was a mere timber frame,
filled up with lath and plaster, the beams being of deal,
with short oak joints : it presented a capital example of the
old London bulk-shop (sixteenth century), with a heavy
canopy projecting over the pathway, and turned up at the
rim to carry off the rain endwise. This shop had long been
held by a succession of fishmongers ; and Crockford would
not permit the house-front to be altered in his lifetime. He
was known in gaming circles by the sobriquet of "the
Fishmonger."
'* King Allen," " The Golden Ball," and Scrope
Davies,
In the old days when gaming was in fashion, at Waller's
Club, princes and nobles lost or gained fortunes between
themselves. It was the same at Brookes's, one member of
which. Lord Robert Spencer, was wise enough to apply wha)
he had won to the purchase of the estate of Vfoolbidding,
Suffolk. Then came Crockford's hell, the proprietor of
which, a man who had begun life with a fish-basket, won
the whole of the ready money of the then existing genera-
tion of aristocratic simpletons. Among the men who most
suffered by play was Viscount Allen, or " King Allen," as
" KING ALLEN" " GOLDEN BALL," ETC. 245
he was called. This efifeminate dandy had fought like a
young lion in Spain ; for the dandies, foolish as they looked,
never wanted pluck. The "King" then lounged about
town, grew fat, lost his all, and withdrew to Dublin, where,
in Merrion-square, he slept behind a large brass plate with
" Viscount Allen " upon it, which was as good to him as
board wages, for it brought endless invitations from people
eager to feed a viscount at any hour of the day or night,
although " King Allen" had more ready ability in uttering
disagreeable than witty things.
Very rarely indeed did any of the ruined gamesters ever
get on their legs again. The " Golden Ball," however, was
an exception. Ball Hughes fell from the very top of the
gay pagoda into the mud, but even there, as life was nothing
to him without the old excitement, he played pitch and toss
for halfpence, and he won and lost small ventures at battle-
dore and shuttlecock, which innocent exercise he turned
into a gambling speculation. After he withdrew, in very
reduced circumstances, to France, his once mad purchase
of Oatlands suddenly assumed a profitable aspect. The
estate was touched by a railway and admired by building
speculators, and between the two the " Ball," in its last days,
had a very cheerful and glittering aspect indeed.
Far less lucky than Hughes was Scrope Davies, whose
name was once so familiar to every man and boy about
town. There was good stuff about this dandy. He one
iiight won the whole fortune of an aspiring fast lad who had
come of age the week before, and who was so prostrated by
his loss that kindly-hearted Scrope gave back the fortune
the other had lost, on his giving his word of honour never
to play again. Davies stuck to the green baize till his own
fortune had gone among a score of less compassionate
gentlemen. His distressed condition was made known to the
young fellow to whom he had formerly acted with so much
generosity, and that grateful heir refused to lend him even a
guinea. Scrope was not of the gentlemen-ruffians of the day
446 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
who were addicted to cruelly assaulting men weaker than
themselves. He was well-bred and a scholar; and he bore
his reverses with a rare philosophy. His home was on a
bench in the Tuileries, where he received old acquaintances
who visited him in exile ; but he admitted only very tried
friends to the little room where he read and slept. He was
famed for his readiness in quoting the classical poets, and
for his admiration of Moore, in whose favour those quota-
tions were frequently made. They were often most happy.
For example, he translated 'Ubi//«ra nitent non tgo paucis
ofifendar maculis,' by ' Moore shines so brightly that I cannot
Jind fault with Little's vagaries/' He also rendered 'Ne
plus ultra,' ' Nothing is better than Moore I' "*
The Four-in-Hand Club.
Gentleman-coaching has scarcely been known in England
seventy-five years. The Anglo-Erich thonius, the Hon. Charles
Finch, brother to the Earl of Aylesford, used to drive his
own coach-and-four, disguised in a livery great coat. Soon
after his d3ut, however, the celebrated " Tommy Onslow,"
Sir John Lacy, and others, mounted the box in their own
characters. Sir John was esteemed a renowned judge of
coach-horses and carriages, and a coachman of the old
school ; but everything connected with the coach-box has
undergone such a change, that the Nestors of the art are no
longer to be quoted. ' Among the celebrities may be men-
tioned the " B. C. D.," or Benson Driving Club, which held
its rendezvous at the " Black Dog," Bedfont, as one of the
numerous driving associations, whose processions used, some
forty years ago, to be among the most imposing, as well as
peculiar spectacles in and about the metropolis.
On the stage, the gentlemen drivers, of whom the mem-
bers of the Four-in-Hand Club were the exclusive Slite, were
? Athenaum review of "Captain GronoVs Anecdotes."
THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB. 447
illustrated rather than caricatured in Goldfinch, in Holcroft's
comedy The Read to Ruin. Some of them who had not
"drags" of their own, "tipped" a weekly allowance to
stage coachmen, to allow them to " finger the ribbons," and
" tool the team." Of course, they frequently " spilt " the
passengers. The closeness with which the professional
coachmen were imitated by the " bucks," is shown in the
case of Wealthy young Ackers, who had one of his front
teeth taken out, in order that he might acquire the true
coachman-like way of " spitting." There were men of
brains, nevertheless, in the Four-in-Hand, who knew how to
ridicule such fellow-members as Lord Onslow, whom they
thus immortalized in an epigram of that day : —
What can Tommy Onslow do ?
He can drive a coach and two.
Can Tommy Onslow do no more ?
He can drive a coach and four.
It is a curious fact, that the fashion of amateur cha-
rioteering was first set by the ladies. Dr. Young has
strikingly sketched, in his satires, the Delia who was as
good a coachman as the man she paid for being so : —
Graceful as John, she moderates the reins,
And whistles sweet her diuretic strains.
The Four-in-Hand combined gastronomy with eques-
trianism and charioteering. They always drove out of
town to dinner, and the ghost of Sgrope Davies will pardon
our suggesting that the club of drivers and diners might
well have taken for their motto, " Quadrigis, petimus bene
vivere ! "*
There is another version of the epigram on Torn
Onslow : —
Say, what can Tommy Onslow do?
Can drive a curricle and two.
Can Tommy Onslow do no more ?
Yes, — drive a curricle and four.
• Athenaum, No. 1739'
248 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
This is the version current, we are told, among Onslow's
relations in the neighbourhood of Guildford.
Lord Onslow's celebrity as a whip long preceded the
existence of the Four-in-Hand Club (the palmy days of
which belong to the times of George the Fourth), and it
was not a coach, but a phaeton, that he drove. A corre-
spondent of the AihencBum writes : "I knew him personally,
in my own boyhood, in Surrey, in the first years of the
present century ; and I remember then hearing the epigram
now referred to, not as new, but as well known, in the
fallowing form : —
What can little T. O. do ?
Drive a phaeton and two.
Can little T. O. do no more ?
Yes, — drive a phaeton and four.
Tommy Onslow was a little man, full of life and oddities,
one of which was a fondness for driving into odd places ;
and I remember the surprise of a pic-nic party, which he
joined in a secluded spot, driving up in his ' phaeton and
four ' through ways that were hardly supposed passable by
anything beyond a flock of sheep. An earlier exploit of
his had a less agreeable termination. He was once
driving through Thames-street, when the hook of a crane,
dangling down in front of one of the warehouses, caught
the hood of the phaeton, tilting him out, and the fall broke
his collar-bone."
The vehicles of the Club which were formerly used are
described as of a hybrid class, quite as elegant as private
carriages and lighter than even the mails. They were horsed
with the finest animals that money could secure. In general
the whole four in each carriage were admirably matched ;
grey and chestnut were the favourite colours, but occasion-
ally very black horses, or such as were freely flecked with
white, were preferred. The master generally drove the
team, often a nobleman of high rank, who commonly copied
the dress of a mail coachman. The company usuftlly rode
THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB. 249
outside, but two footmen in rich liveries were indispensable
on the back seat, nor was it at all uncommon to see some
splendidly-attired female on the box. A rule of the Club
■was that all members should turn out three times a week ;
and the start was made at mid-day, from the neighbourhood
of Piccadilly, through which they passed to the Windsor-
road, — the attendants of each carriage playing on their
silver bugles. From twelve to twenty of these handsome
vehicles often left London together.
There remain a few handsome drags, superbly horsed.
In a note to Nimrod's life-like sketch, " The Road,"* it is
stated that "only ten years back, there were from thirty-four
to forty four-in-hand equipages to be seen constantly about
town."
Nimrod has some anecdotical illustrations of the taste for
the whif, which has undoubtedly declined; and at one
time, perhaps, it occupied more attention among the higher
classes of society than we ever wish to see it do again.
Yet, taken in moderation, we can perceive no reason to
condemn this branch of sport more than others. "If so
great a personage as Sophocles could think it fitting to dis-
play his science in public, in the trifling game of ball, why
may not an English gentleman exercise his skill on a coach-
box? If the Athenians, the most polished nation of all
antiquity, deemed it an honour to be considered skilful
charioteers, why should Englishmen consider it a disgrace ?
To be serious, our amateur or gaitlemen-coachmen have done
much good: the road would never have been what it now
is, but for the encouragement they gave by their notice and
support to all persons connected with it. Would the
Holyhead road have been what it is, had there been no
such persons as the Hon. Thomas Kenyon, Sir Henry
Pamell, and Mr. Maddox ? Would the Oxford coachmen
* Written, it must be recollected, some five-and-thirty years since.
Reprinted in Murray's "Reading for tlie Rail."
2SO CLVB LIFE OF LONDON.
have set so good an example as they have done to their
brethren of ' the bench,' had there been no such men oh
their road as Sir Henry Peyton, Lord Clonmel, the late Sir
Thomas Mostyn; that Nestor of coachmen, Mr. Annesley;
and the late Mr. Harrison, of Shelswell ? Would not the
unhappy coachmen of five-and-twenty years back have gone
on, wearing out their breeches with the bumping of 'the old
coach-box, and their stomachs with brandy, had not Mr.
Warde, of Squerries, after many a weary endeavour, per-
suaded the proprietors to place their boxes upon springs —
the plan for accomplishing which was suggested by Mr.
Roberts, nephew to the then proprietor of the White Horse,
Fetter Lane, London, but now of the Royal Hotel, Calais ?
What would the Devonshire road have been, but for the
late Sir Charles Bamfylde, Sir John Rogers, Colonel Prouse,
Sir Lawrence Palk, and others ? Have the advice and th6
practice of such experienced men as Mr. Charles Buxton,
Mr. Heniy Villebois, Mr. Okeover, Sir Bellingham Graham,
Mr. John Walker, Lord Sefton, Sir Felix Agar,* Mr. Ackers,
Mr. Maxse, Hon. Fitzroy Stanhope, Colonel Spicer, Colonel
Sibthorpe, cum multis aliis, been thrown away upon persons
who have looked up to them as protectors ? Certainly not :
neither would the improvement in carriages — stage-coaches
more especially — have arrived at its present heighl^ but for
the attention and suggestions of such persons as we have
been speaking of."
A commemoration of long service in the coaching depart-
ment may be related here. In the autumn of 1835, a hand-
some compliment was paid to Mr. Charles Holmes, the
* Perhaps one of the finest specimens of good coachmanship was
performed by Sir Felix Agar. He made a bet, which he won, that he
would drive his own four-horses-in-hand up Grosvenor-place, down the
passage into Tattersall's Yard, around the pillar which stands in the
centre of it, and back again into Grosvenor-place, without either of hit
horses going at a slower pace than a trot.
WHIST CLUBS.
251
driver and part proprietor of the Blenheim coach (from
Woodstock to London) to celebrate the completion of his
twentieth year on that well-appointed coacli, a period that
had elapsed without a single accident to his coach, his pas-
sengers, or himself; and during which time, \vith the ex-
ception of a very short absence from indisposition, he had
driven his sixty-five miles every day, making somewhere about
twenty-three thousand miles a year. The numerous patrons
of the coach entered into a subscription to present him with
a piece of plate; and accordingly a cup, bearing the shape of
an antique vase, the cover surmounted by a beautifully
modelled horse, with a coach and four horses on one side,
and a suitable inscription on the other, was presented to Mr.
Holmes by that staunch patron of the road. Sir Henry
Peyton, Bart., in August, at a dinner, at the Thatched
House Tavern, St James's-street, to which between forty and
fifty gentlemen sat down. The list of subscribers amounted
to upwards of two hundred and fifty, including among others
the Duke of Wellington.
Whist Clubs.
To Hoyle has been ascribed the invention of the game of
■\Vhist This is certainly a mistake, though there can be no
doubt that it was indebted to him for being first specially
treated of and introduced to the public in a scientific man-
ner. He also wrote on piquet, quadrille, and backgammon,
but little is known of him more than that he was bom in 1672,
and died in Cavendish-square on 29th August, 1769, at the
advanced age of ninety-seven. He was a barrister by pro-
fession, and Registrar of the Prerogative in Ireland, a post
worth 600/. a year. His treatise on Whist, for which he
received from the publisher the sum of 1000/., ran through
five editions in one year, besides being extensively piratbd.
Whist, Ombre, and Quadrille, at Court were used.
And Bassett's power the City dames amused,
a52 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Imperial Whist was yet but slight esteemed,
And pastime fit for none but rustics deemed.
How slow at first is still the growth of fame'!
And what obstructions wait each rising name 1
Our stupid fathers thus neglected, long.
The glorious boast of Milton's epic song ;
But Milton's muse at last a critic found.
Who spread his praise o'er all the world around ;
And Hoyle at length, for Whist performed the same,
And proved its right to universal fame.
Whist first began to be popular in England about 1 730,
when it was very closely studied by a party of gentlemen,
who formed a sort of Club, at the Crown Coffee-house, in
Bedford-row. Hoyle is said to have given instructions in
the game, for which his charge was a guinea a lesson.
The Laws of Whist have been variously given.* More than
half a century has elapsed since the supremacy of "long
whist," was assailed by a reformed, or rather revolutionized
form of the game. The champions of the ancient rules and
methods did not at once submit to the innovation. The
conservatives were not without some good arguments on their
side ; but "short whist " had attractions that proved irre-
sistible, and it has long since fully established itself as the
only game to be understood when whist is named. But
hence, in the course of time, has arisen an inconvenience.
The old school of players had, in the works of Hoyle
and Cavendish, manuals and text-books of which the rules,
cases, and decisions were generally accepted. For short
whist no such " volume paramount " has hitherto existed.
Hoyle could' not be safely trusted by a learner, so much con-
tained in that venerable having become obsolete. Thus,
doubtful cases arising out of the short game had to be re-
ferred to the best living players for decision. But there was
some confusion in the " whist world," and the necessity of a
code of the modern laws and rules of this " almost perfect "
Abridged £rom the Times journal.
WHIST CLUBS. 2S3
game had become apparent, when a combined effort was
made by a committee of some of the most skilful to supply
the deficiency.
The movement was commenced by Mr. J. Loraine Bald-
win, who obtained the assistance of a Committee, including
members of several of the best London Clubs well known as
whist players. They were deputed to draw up a code of rules
for the game, which, if approved, was to be adopted by the
Arlington Club. They performed their task with the most de-
cided success. The rules they laid down as governing the
best modern practice have been accepted, not only by the
Arhngton, but the Army and Navy, Arthur's, Boodle's,,
Brookes's Carlton, Conservative, Garrick, Guards, Junior
Carlton, Portland, Oxford and Cambridge, Reform, St.
James's, White's, etc. To the great section of the whist world
that do not frequent Clubs, it maybe satisfactory to knov/the
names of the gentlemen composing the Committee of Codifi-
cation, whose rules have become law. They are Admiral
Rouse, chairman; Mr. G. Bentinck, M.P. ; Mr. J. Bushe; Mr.
J. Clay, M.P.; Mr. C. Greville; Mr. R. ICnightley, M.P.; Mr.
H. B. Mayne; Mr. G. Payne; and Colonel Pipon. The
"Laws of Short Whist"* were in 1865 published in a small
volume ; and to this strictly legal portion of the book is apr
pended " A Treatise on the Game," by Mr. J. Clay, M.P.
for Hull. It may be read with advantage by the commencing
student of whist and the advanced player, and with pleasure
even by those who are totally ignorant of it, and have no
wish to learn it. There are several incidental illustrations
and anecdotes, that will interest those not gifted with the
faculties good whist requires. Mr. Clay is reported to be
one of the best, if not the very best, of modem players.
The Dedication is as follows: "To the Members of the
Portland Club, admitted among wliona, as a boy, I have
• "The Laws of Short Whist," edited by J. L. Baldwin, and "A
Treatise on the Game," by J. C. Harrison, 59, Pall Mall.
aS4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
passed many of the pleasantest days , of my life, I have
learned what little I know of Whist, and have formed many
of my oldest friendships, this Treatise on Short Whist is
dedicated with feelings of respect and regard, by their old
playfellow, J. C."
Leaving his instructions, like the rules of the committee,
to a more severe test than criticism, we extract from his first
chapter a description of the incident to which short whist
owes its origin. It will probably be quite new to thousands
who are familiar with the game.
" Some eighty years back. Lord Peterborough, having one
night lost a large sum of money, the friends with whom he
was playing proposed to make the game five points instead
often, in order to give the loser a chance, at a quicker game,
of recovering his loss. The new game was found to be so
lively, and money changed hands with such increased
rapidity, that these gentlemen and their friends, all of them,
leading members of the Clubs of the. day, continued to play
it. It became general in the Clubs, thence was introduced
to private houses, travelled into the country, went to Paris,
and has long since so entirely superseded the whist of Hoyle's
day, that of short whist alone I propose to treat. I shall,
thus spare the reader, the learning much in the old works
that it is not necessary for him to know, and not a little
which, if learned, should be at once forgotten."
Graham's, in St. James's-street, the greatest of Card Clubs,
was dissolved about thirty years back.
Prince's Club Racquet Courts.
In the early history of the metropolis we find the ,Lon- ,
doners warmly attached to outdoor sports and pastimes,;
although time and the spread of the great, city have long
obliterated the sites upon which these popular amusements
were enjoyed. Smithfield, we know, was the town-green
foi: centuries before it became the focus of its fanatic fires :
PRINCE'S CLUB RACQUET COURTS. 255
Maypoles stood in various parts of the City e^ikI .sub,urbs, as
kept in remembrance by name to this day ; football was
played in the main artery of the town — Fleet-street and the
Strand, for instance ; faille malle was played in St. James's
Park, and the street which is named after the game ; and
tennis and otlier games at ball were enjoyed on open
grounds long before they were played in covered courts ;
while the bowling-greens in the environs were neither few nor
far between, almost to our time.
Tennis, we need scarcely state here, was originally played
with the hand, at first naked, then covered with a thick
glove, to which succeeded the bat or racquet, whence the
present name of the game. A few of our kings have been
tennis-players. In the sixteenth century tennis courts were
common in England, being attached to country mansions.
Later, pla)dng-courts were opened in the metropolis : for
example, to the houses of entertainment which formerly
stood at the opposite angles of Windmill-street and the
Haymarket were attached tennis-courts, which lasted to our
time : one of these courts exists in James-street, Haymarket,
to this day. To stroll out from the heated and crowded
streets of the town to the village was a fashion of the last
century, as we read in the well-remembered line-^
Some dukes at Marybone bowl time away. .
Taking into account the vast growth of the metropolis,
we are not surprised at so luxurious a means of healthful
enjoyment as a racquet court presents being added to the
establishments or institutions of this very clubbable age.
Hitherto Clubs had been mostly appropriated to the pur-
poses of refection ; but why should not the social refinement
he extended to the enjoyment of so hea,lth-giving a sport and
manly a pastime as racquet ? The experiment was made,
and with perfect success, immediately upon the confines of
one of the most recent settlements of fashion— Belgravia. It
2S6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
is private property, and bears the name of Prince's Club
Racquet Courts.
The Club, established in 1854, is built upon the Pavilion
estate, in the rear of the north side of Sloane-street, the
principal entrance being from Hans-place. The grounds
are of considerable extent, and were originally laid out by
Capability Brown. They were almost environed with lofty
timber-trees ; and the genius of landscape gardening, fos-
tered by wealth, rendered this glade in the Brompton groves
of old a sort of rural elysium.
The Pavilion estate was once the property of Holland,
the well-known architect, who planned Slcane-street and
Hans-place, as a building speculation ; and, in the grounds
nearly between them, built himself what was then considered
a handsome villa, the front of which was originally designed
by Holland as a model for the Prince of Wales's Pavilion
at Brighton ; hence the name, the Pavilion estate. In the
grounds, among the remains of Brown's ornamental work,
was an icehouse, amidst the imitative ruins of a priory.
Here, also, were the Ionic columns (isolated) which were
formerly in the screen of Carlton House.
The Club buildings comprise seven closed courts ; a
tennis court ; gallery and refreshment rooms ; baths, and a
Turkish bath.
Prince's Club is a subscription establishment; and its
government is vested in a committee. Gentlemen desirous
of becoming members of the Club must be proposed and
seconded by two of its members. Two of the rules enact —
that members have the privilege of introducing two friends,
but that such visitors, if they play, be charged double the
rate charged to members ; and that no hazard, dice, or
game of chance be allowed in this Club. Their Royal
Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge
are members.
as7
An Angling Club.
Professor Owen is accustomed to relate the following very
amusing incident, which occurred in a Club of some of the
working scientific men of London, who, with a few others,
after their winter's work of lecturing is over, occasionally
sally forth to have a day's fishing. "We have," says Pro-
fessor Owen, " for that purpose taken a small river in the
neighbourhood of the metropolis, and near its banks there
stands a little public-house, where we dine soberly and
sparingly, on such food as old Izaak Walton loved. We
have a rule that he who catches the biggest fish of the day
shall be our president for the evening. In the course of one
day, a member, not a scientific man, but a high political
man, caught a trout that weighed 3^ lb. ; but earlier in
the day he had pulled out a barbel of half a pound weight.
So while we were on the way to our inn, what did this
pohtical gentleman do but, with the butt-end of his rod, ram
the barbel down the trout's throat, in which state he handed
his fish to be weighed. Thus he scored four pounds, which
being the greatest weight he took the chair.
" As we were going away from home, a man of science, —
it was the President of the Royal Society, — said to the man
of politics, ' If you don't want that fine fish of yours, I should
like to have it, for I have some friends to dine with me to-
morrow.' My Lord took it home, and I heard no more
until we met on the next week. Then, while we were pre-
paring our tackle, the President of the Royal Society said
to our high political friend, ' There were some very extra-
ordinary circumstances, do you know, about that fish you
gave me. I had no idea that the trout was so voracious ;
but that one had swallowed a barbel.' — ' I am astonished to
hear your Lordship say so,' rejoined an eminent naturaHst ;
' trout may be voracious enough to swallow minnows — but
a barbel, my Lord ! There must be some mistake.' — ' Not
s
258 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
at all,' replied his lordship, ' for the fact got to my family
that the cook, in cutting open the throat, had found a barbel
inside ; and as my family knew I was fond of natural history,
I was called into the kitchen. There I saw the troiit had
swallowed a barbel, full half a pound weight.' — ' Out of the
question, my Lord,' said the naturalist; 'it's altogether
quite unscientific and unphilosophical.' — ' I don't ' know
what may be philosophical in the matter — I only know I am
telling you a matter of fact,' said his Lordship ; and the
dispute having lasted awhile, explanations were giyen, and
the practical joke was heartily enjoyed. And " (continued
Professor Owen) "you will see that both were right aiid
both were wrong. My Lord was right in his fact — the
barbel was inside the trout ; but he was quite wrong in his
hypothesis founded upon that fact, that the trout had there-
fore swallowed the barbel, — the last was only matter of
opinion."
The Red Lions.
In 1839, when the British Association met in Birmingham,
several of its younger members happened, accidentally, to
dine at the Red Lion, in Church-street. The dinner was
pleasant, the guests well suited to each other, and the meet-
ing altogether proved so agreeable, that it was resolved to
continue it from year to year, wherever the Association
might happen to meet. By degrees the " Red Lions " — the
name was assumed from the accident of the first meeting-
place— became a very' exclusive Club ; and under the
presidency of Professor Edward Forbes, it acquired a
celebrity which, in its way, almost rivalled that of the
Association itself. Forbes first drew around him the small
circle of jovial philosophers at the Red Lion. The names of
Lankester, Thomson, Bell, Mitchell, and Strickland are down
in the old muster-roll. Many were added afterwards, as the
Club was kept up in London, in meetings at Anderton's, in
Fleet-street. The old cards of invitation were very droll: they
THE RED LIONS. 259
were stamped with the figure of a Red Lion erect, with a pot
of beer in one paw, and a long day pipe in the other, and
the invitation commenced with " The camivora will feed "
at such an hour. Forbes, who as pater omnipotens, always
took the chair, at the first chance meeting round the plain
table of the inn, gave a capital stock of humour to this feed-
ing of the naturalists by taking up his coat-tail and roaring
whenever a good thing was said or a good song sung ; and,
of course, all the other Red Lions did the same. When
roaring and tail-wagging became so characteristic an institu-
tion among the members, Mr. Mitchell, then secretary of the
Zoological Society, presented a fine lion's skin to the Club ;
and ever after the President sat with this skin spread over
his chair, the paws at the elbows, arid the tail handy to be
wagged. Alas ! this tail no longer wags at Birmingham, and
after vibrating with languid emotion in London, has now-
ceased to show any signs of life. The old Red Lion has
lost heart, and has slumbered since the death of Forbes.
At the Meeting of the British Association at Birmingham,
in 1865, an endeavour was made to revive the Red Lion
dinner on something like its former scale ; the idea being
probably suggested by the circumstance of the Club having
been originated in Birmingham. Lord Houghton, who is,
we believe, " an old Red," presided ; but the idiosyiicrasy
of the real Red Lion, and his intense love of plain roast and
boiled, were missed : some sixty guests sat down, not at the
Red Lion, but at a hotel banquet. Not one of the cele-
brants on this occasion had passed through his novitiate as
a Red Lion cub : he was not asked whether he could roar
or sing a song, or had ever said a good thing, one of which
qualifications was a, sine qu& non in the old Club. There
were, however, some good songs : Professor Rankme sang
" The Mathematician in Love," a song of his own. Then,
there are some choice spirits among these philosophers.
After the banquet a section adjourned to the B. Club,
members of which are chiefly chemical in their serious
S a
36o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
moments. Indeed, all through the meeting there was a
succession of jovial parties in the identical room at the Red
Lion.*
The Coventry, Erectheum, and Parthenon
Clubs.
The Coventry, or Ambassadors' Club, was instituted
about twenty years since, at No. io6, Piccadilly, facing
the Green Park. The handsome stone-fronted mansion
occupies the site of the old Greyhound inn, and was bought
by the Earl of Coventry of Sir Hugh Hunlock, in 1764, for
10,000/., subject to the ground-rent of 75/. per annum.
The Club enjoyed but a brief existence : it was closed in
March, 1854.
The Erectheum Club, St. James's-square, corner of York-
street, was established by Sir John Dean Paul, Bart., and
became celebrated for its good dinners. The Club-house
was formerly the town depot of Wedgwood's famous
" ware /' and occupies the site of the mansion built for the
Earl of Romney, the handsome Sydney of De Grammont's
Memoirs.
The Parthenon Club-house (late Mr. Edwards's), east side
of Regent-street, nearly facing St. Philip's Chapel, was de-
signed by Nash ; the first floor is elegant Corinthian. The
south division was built by Mr. Nash for his own residence ;
it has a long gallery, decorated from a log^a of the Vatican
at Rome : it is now the Gallery of Illustration.
" The Coventry Club was a Club of most exclusive ex-
quisites, and was rich in diplomacy ; but it blew up in
admired confusion. Even so did Lord Cardigan's Club,
founded upon the site of Crockford's. The Clarence, the
Albion, and a dozen other small Clubs have all dissolved,
some of them with great loss to the members, and the
Abridged from the Doily Nnws,
ANTIQUARIAN CLUBS. 261
Erectheum and Parthenon thought it prudent to join their
forces to keep the wolf from the door."— New Quarterly
Review.
Antiquarian Clubs, — The Noviomagians.
We have already seen how the more convivially disposed
members of Learned Societies have, from time to time,
formed themselves into Clubs. The Royals have done so,
ab initio. The Antiquaries appear to have given up their
Club and their Anniversary Dinner; but certain of the
Fellows, resolving not to remain impransi, many years since,
formed a Club, styled " Noviomagians," from the identifica-
tion of the Roman station of Noviomagus being just then
discovered, or rather
Rife and celebrated in the mouths
Of wisest men.
One of the Club-founders was Mr. A. J. Kempe ; and Mr.
Crofton Croker was president more than twenty years!
Lord Londesborough and Mr. Comer, the Southwark
antiquary, were also Noviomagians ; and in the present
Club-list are Sir William Betham, Mr. Fairholt, Mr. Godwin,
Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Lemon, etc. The Club dine together
once a month during the season at the old tavern next the
burial-place of Joe Miller in Portugal Street. Here the
Fellows meet for the promotion of good fellowship and
antiquarian pursuits. " Joking minutes are kept, in which
would be found many known names, either as visitors or
associates, — Theodore Hook, Sir Henry ElUs, Britton,
Dickens, Thackeray, John Bruce, Jerdan, Planchd, Bell,
Maclise, etc." The Club and its visitors may have caught
inspiration here ; for in their sallies movere jocum, they have
imitated the wits at Strawberry Hill, and found Arras for the
Club, with a butter-boat rampant for the crest, which is very
significant.
262 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
In 1855, Lord Mayor Moon, F.S.A., entertained at the
Mansion House the Noviomagians, and the^office-bearers of
the Society of Antiquaries to meet them. After dinner,
some short papers were read, including one by Mr. Lemon,
of the State Paper Office, presenting some curious illus-
trations of the state of society in London in the reign of
James I., showing the Migration of Citizens Westward"
(See "Romance of London," vol. iii. pp. 315-320.)
The Eccentrics.
Late in the last century there met at a tavera kept by one
Fulham, in Chandos Street, Covent Garden, a convivial
Club called "The Eccentrics," which was an offshoot of
" The Brilliants." They next removed to Tom Rees's, in
May's-buildings, St. Martin's-lane, and here they were
flourishing at all hours, some thirty years since. Amongst
the members were many celebrities of the literary and
political world; they were always treated with indulgence
by the authorities. An inaugural ceremony was performed
upon the making of a member, which terminated with a
jubilation from the President. The books of the Club up to
the time of its removal from May's-buildings are stated to
have passed into the possession of Mr. Lloyd, the hatter, of
the Strand, who, by the way, was eccentric in his business,
and published a small work descriptive of the various
fashions of hats worn in his time, illustrated with charac-
teristic engravings.
From its commencement the Eccentrics are said to have
numbered upwards of 40,000 members, many of them hold-
ing high social possition : among others, Fox, Sheridan,
Lord Melbourne, and Lord Brougham. On the same
memorable night that Sheridan and Lord Petersham were
admitted, Hook was also enrolled j and through this Club
ijiembership, Theodore is believed to have obtained some
of his high connexions. In a novel, published in numbers,
DOUGLAS JERROLD'S CLUBS. ?63
some thirty years siace, the author, F. W, N. Bayley,
sketched with graphic vigour the meetings of the Eccentrics
at the old tavern in May's-buildings.
Douglas Jerrold's Clubs.
One of the chapters in "The Life and Remains of
Douglas Jerrold," by his son Blanchard Jerrold, discourses
most pleasantly of the several Clubs to which Mr. Jerrold
became attached. He was of a clubbable nature, and
delighted in wit combats and brilliant repartees, the flash of
which was perfectly electric.
In this very agreeable prkis, we find that towards the end
of theyear 1824, some young men met at a humble tavern,
the Wrekin, in the genial neighbourhood of Covent Garden,
with Shakspeare as their common idol ; and " it was a regu-
lation of this Club that some paper, or poem, or conceit,
bearing upon Shakspeare, should be contributed by each
member. Hither came Douglas Jerrold, and he was soon
joined by Laman Blanchard. Upon Jerrold's suggestion,
the Club was called the Mulberries, and their contributions
were entitled Mulberry Leaves. In the Club were William
Godwin ; Kenny Meadows, the future illustrator of Shak-
speare; W. Elton, the Shakspearean actor; and Edward
Chatfield, the artist. Mr. Jerrold wrote, in the "Illuminated
Magazine," a touching memoir of the Society — " that knot
of wise and jocund men, then unknown, but gaily struggling."
The Mulberry Club lived many years, and gathered a
valuable crop of leaves — contributions from its members.
They fell into Mr. Elton's hands, and are now in the pos-
session of his family. They were to have been published,
but no one would undertake to see them through the press
— an office which, in most cases, is a very unthankful one.
The Club did not, however, die easily : it was changed and
grafted. " In times nearer the present, when it was called
the Shakspeare Club, Charles Dickens, Mr. Justice Talfourd,
254 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Daniel Maclise, Mr. Macready, Mr. Frank Stone, etc.
belonged to it. Respectability killed it." But some de-
lightful results of these Mulberry Club meetings are em-
balmed in Mr. Jerrold's " Cakes and Ale," and their life
reminds one of the dancing motes in the latter. Then we
hear of other clubs — the Gratis and the Rationals, of which
Jerrold was a member.
"But," says the gentle Memoir, "with clubs of more
recent date, with the Hooks and Eyes, and lastly with Our
Club, Douglas Jerrold's name is most intimately associated.
It may be justly said that he was the life and soul of these
three gatherings of men. His arrival was a happy moment
for members already present. His company was sought with
wondrous eagerness whenever a dinner or social evening
was contemplated ; for, as a club associate said of him, ' he
sparkled whenever you touched him, like the sea at night.'
A writer in the " Quarterly Review " well said of him : ' In
the bright sallies of conversational wit he has no surviving
equal.'
" He was thus greatly acceptable in all social literary Clubs.
In the Museum Club, for instance, (an attempt made in
1847 to estabUsh a properly modest and real literary Club,)
he was unquestionably the member ; for he was the most
clubbable of men." When members dropped in, sharp shots
were possibly exchanged : here are a few that were actually
fired within the precincts of the Museum Club — fired care-
lessly and forgotten :
Jerrold defined dogmatism as " puppyism come to ma-
turity ; " and a. flaming uxorious epitaph put up by a famous
cook, on his wife's tomb, as " mock turtle." A prosy old
gentleman, meeting him as he was passing at his usual quick
pace along Regent-street, poised himself into an attitude,
and began : " Well, Jerrold, my dear boy, what is going
on?" — "I am," said the wit, instantly shootmg off.
At a dinner of artists, a barrister present, having his
, ealth drunk in connexion with the law, begaii an embarrassed
DOUGLAS yESROLD'S CLUBS. 265
answer by saying that he did not see how the law could be
considered one of the arts, when Jerrold jerked in the word
black, and threw the company into convulsions.
A bore remarking how charmed he was with a certain
opera, and that there was one particular song which always
carried him quite away — " Would that I could sing it !"
ejaculated the wit.
A dinner is discussed. Douglas Jerrold listens quietly,
possibly tired of dinners, and declining pressing invitations
to be present. In a few minutes he will chime in, " If an
earthquake were to engulf England to-morrow, the English
would manage to meet and dine somewhere among the
rubbish, just to celebrate the event."
A friend is anxious to awaken Mr. Jerrold's sympathies in
behalf of a mutual acquaintance who is in want of a round sum
of money. But this mutual friend has already sent his hat
about among his literary brethren on more than one occasion.
Mr. 's hat is becoming an institution, and friends were
grieved at the indelicacy of the proceeding. On the above
occasion, the bearer of the hat was received with evident
dissatisfaction. " Well," said Douglas Jerrold, " how much
does want this time ?" — " Why, just a four and two
noughts will, I think, put him straight," the bearer of the hat
replied. Jerrold — "Well, put me down for one of the
noughts."
" The Chain of Events," playing at the Lyceum Theatre,
though unsuccessful, is mentioned. " Humph," said
Douglas Jerrold, "I'm afraid the manager will find it a
door-chain strong enough to keep everybody out of the
house," — and so it proved.
Douglas Jerrold is seriously disappointed with a certain
book written by one of his friends, and has expressed his
disappointment. Friend—"! have heard that you said
was the worst book I ever wrote." Jerrold— "^ No, I
didn't ; I said it was the worst book anybody ever wrote."
"A supper of sheep's-heads is proposed, and presently
266 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
served. One gentleman present is particularly enthusiastic
on the excellence of the dish, and, as he throws down his
knife and fork, exclaims, " Well, sheeps'-'heads for ever, say
I!" /drw/(f—« There's egotism !"
During a stormy discussion, a gentleman rises to settle the
matter in dispute. Waving his hands majestically over the
excited disputants, he begins : — " Gentlemen, all I want is
common sense." — "Exactly," says Douglas Jerrold, "that is
precisely what you do want."
But the Museum Club was broken up by troubled spirits.
Then succeeded the Hooks and Eyes; then the Club, a
social weekly gathering, which Jerrold attended only three
weeks before his death. Hence some of his best sayings
went forth.
Jerrold ordered a bottle of old port ; " not elder port," he
said.
Walking to his Club with a friend from the theatre, some
intoxicated young gentleman reeled up to the dramatist and
said, " Can you tell me the way to the Judge and Jury ?" —
" Keep on as you are, young gentleman," was the reply ;
"you're sure to overtake them."
Asking about the talent of a young painter, his companion
declared that the youth was mediocre. "Oh!" was the
reply; " the very worst ochre an artist can set to work with."
" The laughing hours, when these poor gatherings," says
Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, " fell firom the welWoaded branch,
are remembered still in the rooms of Our Club ; and the
hearty laugh still echoes there, and will, it is my pride to
believe, always live in the memory of that genial and refined
circle."
The Whittington Club originated in 1846, with Douglas
Jerrold, who became its first President. It was established
at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand ; where, in
the ball-room, hung a picture of Whittington listening to
Bow-bells, painted by Newenham, and presented to the
Club by the President. All the Club premises were
CffESS CLUBS. 267
destroyed by fire in 1854 ; the picture was not saved, but
fortunately it had been cleverly engraved. The premises
have been rebuilt, and the Club still flflurishes.
Chess Clubs.
The Clubs in various parts of the Meti'opolis and the
suburbs, where Chess, and Chess only, forms the staple
recreation of the members, are numerous. We must, how-
ever, confine ourselves to the historical data of the early
Clubs, which record the introduction of the noble game in
the Metropolis.
In 1747, the principal if not the only Chess Club in the
Metropolis met at Slaughter's Coffee-house, St. Martin's-lane.
The leading players of this Club were — Sir Abraham Janssen,
Philip Stamma (from Aleppo) j Lord Godolphin, Lord
Sunderland, and Lord Elibank ; Cunningham, the historian ;
Dr. Black and Dr. Cowper ; and it was through their invita-
tion that the celebrated Philidor was induced to visit
England.
Another Club was shortly afterwards founded at the
Salopian Coifee-house, Charing Cross : and a few years later,
a third, which met next door to the Thatched House
Tavern, in St. James's-street. It was here that Philidor
exhibited his wonderful faculty for playing blindfold ; some
instances of which we find in the newspapers of the period : —
"Yesterday, at the Chess-Club in St. James's-street,
Monsieur Philidor performed one of those wonderful exhi-
bitions for which he is so much celebrated. He played
three different games at once without seeing either of the
tables. His opponents were Count Bruhl and Mr. Bowdler
(the two best players in London), and Mr. Maseres. He
defeated Count Bruhl in one hour and twenty minutes, and
Mr. Maseres in two hours ; Mr. Bowdler reduced his games
to a drawn battle in one hour and three-quarters. To those
who understand Chess, this exertion of M. Philidor's abilities
268 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
must appear one of the greatest of which the human memory
is susceptible. He goes through it with astonishmg accu-
racy, and often corrects mistakes in those who have the
board before them."
In 1795, the veteran, then nearly seventy years of age,
played three bUndfold matches in public. The last of
these, which came off shortly before his death, we find
announced in the daily newspapers thus : —
"Chess-Club, 1795. Parsloe's, St. James's Street.
" By particular desire, Mons. PhiUdor, positively for the
last time, will play on Saturday, the 20th of June, at two
o'clock precisely, three games at once against three good
players ; two of them without seeing either of the boards,
and the third looking over the table. He most respectfully
invites all the members of the Chess-Club to honour him
with their presence. Ladies and gentlemen not belonging
to the Club may be provided with tickets at the above-
mentioned house, to see the match, at five shillings each.''
Upon the death of Philidor, the Chess-Clubs at the
West-end seem to have declined ; and in 1807, the strong-
hold and rallying-point for the lovers of the game was " The
London Chess-Club," which was established in the City, and
for many years held its meetings at Tom's Coffee-house, in
Comhill. To this Club we are indebted for many of the
finest chess-players of the age.
About the year 1833, a Club was founded by a few
amateurs in Bedford-street, Covent Garden. This establish-
ment, which obtained remarkable celebrity as the arena of
the famous contests between La Bourdonnais and M'Donnell,
was dissolved in 1840 ; but shortly afterwards, through the
exertions of Mr. Staunton, was re-formed under the name of
the " St. George's Club," in Cavendish-square.
269
Early Coffee- Houses.
GOFFEE is thus mentioned by Bacon, in his " Sylva Syl-
varum": — "They have in Turkey a drink called Coffee,
made of a Berry of the same name, as Black as Soot, and
of a Strong Sent, but not Aromatical; which they take,
beaten into Powder, in Water, as Hot as they can Drink
it ; and they take it, and sit at it in their Coffee Houses,
which are like our Taverns. The Drink comforteth the
Brain, and Heart, and helpeth Digestion"
And in Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," part i.,
sec. 2, occurs, " Turks in their coffee-houses, which much
resemble our taverns." The date is 162 1, several years
before coffee-houses were introduced into England.
In 1650, Wood tells us, was opened at Oxford, the first
coffee-house, by Jacobs, a Jew, " at the Angel, in the parish
of St. Peter in the East ; and there it was, by some who
delighted in novelty, drank."
There was once an odd notion prevalent that coffee was
unwholesome, and would bring its drinkers to an untimely
end. Yet, Voltaire, Fontenelle, and Fourcroy, who were
great coffee-drinkers, lived to a good old age. Laugh at
Madame de Sevignd, who foretold that coffee and Racine
would be forgotten together !
A manuscript note, written by Oldys, the celebrated
antiquary, states that " The use of coffee in England was
first known in 1657. [It will be seen, as above, that Oldys
is incorrect.] Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought
from Smyrna to London one Pasqua Rosee, a Ragusan
youth, who prepared this drink for him every morning.
But the novelty thereof drawing too much company to him,
270 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
he allowed his said servant, with another of his son-in-law,
to sell it publicly, and they set up the first coffee-house in
London, in St. Michael's-alley, in Cornhill. The sign was
Pasqua Rosee's owii head." '■ Oldys is slightly in error here j
Rosee commenced his coffee-house in 1652, and one Jacobs,
a Jew, as we have just seen, had established a similar under-
taking at Oxford, two years earlier. One of Rosee's
original shop or hand-bills, the only mode of advertising in
those days, is as follows : —
"THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE DRINK,
^^ First made and puilickly sold in England by Fasqua Rosee.
" The grain or berry called coffee, groweth upon httle
trees only in the deserts of Arabia. It is brought from
thence, and drunk generally throughout all the Grand
Seigneur's dominions. It is a simple, innocent thing, com-
posed into a drink, by being dried in an oven, and ground
to powder, and boiled up with spring water, and about half
a pint of it to be drunk fasting an hour before, and not
eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as possibly can
be endured ; the which will never fetch the skin oft the
mouth, or raise any blisters by reason of that heat.
" The Turks' drink at meals and other times is usually
water, and their diet consists much of fruit ; the crudities
whereof are very much corrected by this drink.
" The quality of this drink is cold and dry ; and though
it be a drier, yet it neither heats nor inflames more than hot
posset. It so incloseth the orifice of the stomach, and
fortifies the heat within, that it is very good to help
digestion; and therefore of great use to be taken about
three or four o'clock afternoon, as well as in the morning.
It much quickens the spirits, and makes the heart lightr
some ; it is good against sore eyes, and the better if you
hold your head over it and take in the steam that way. It
suppresseth fumes exceedingly, and therefore is good
against the head-ache, and will very much stop any de-
EARLY COFFEE-HOUSES. 2-/1
fluxion of rheums that distil from the head upon the
stomach, and so prevent and help consumptions and the
cough of the lungs.
"It is excellent to prevent and cure the dropsy, gout,*
and scurvy. It is known by experience to be better than
any other drying drink for people in years, or children that
have any running humours upon them, as the king's evil,
&c. It is a most excellent remedy against the spleen,
hypochondriac winds, and the like. It will prevent drow-
siness, and make one fit for business, if one have occasion
to watch, and therefore you are not to drink of it after
supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder
sleep for three or four hours.
" It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally
drunk, that they are not troubled with the stone, gout, dropsy,
or scurvy, and that their skins are exceeding clear and white.
It is neither laxative nor restringent.
" Made and sold in St. Michael' s-alley, in Cornhill, by
Pasqua Rosee, at th^ sign of Ms own head."
The new beverage had its opponents, as well as its advo-
cates. The following extracts from "An invective against
Coffee," published about the same period, informs us that
Rosee's partner, the servant of Mr. Edwards's son-in-law,
was a coachman ; while it controverts the statement that
hot coffee will not scald the mouth, and ridicules the broken
English of the Ragusan : —
" A BROADSIDE AGAINST COFFEE.
"A coachman was the first (here) coffee made.
And ever since the rest drive on the trade :
' Me no good EngcUash 1 ' and sure enough.
He played the quack to salve his Stygian stuff ;
' Ver boon for de stomach, de cough, de phthisicky
And I believe him, for it looks hke physic.
* In the French colonies, where Coffee is more used than in the
English, Gout is scarcely known.
ajz CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
Cofifee a crust is charred into a coal,
The smell and taste of the mock china bowl ;
Where huff and puff, they labour out their lungs.
Lest, Dives-like, they should bewail their tongues.
And yet they tell ye that it will not bum,
Though on the jury blisters you return ;
Whose furious heat does make the water rise,
And still through the alembics of your eyes.
Dread and desire, you fall to 't snap by snap,
As hungry dogs do scalding porridge lap.
But to cure drunkards it has got great fame ;
Posset or porridge, will 't not do the same ?
Confusion hiirries all into one scene.
Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean.
And now, alas ! the drench has credit got,
And he's no gentleman that drinks it not ;
That such a dwarf should rise to such a stature !
But custom is but a remove from nature.
A little dish and a large coffee-house.
What is it but a mountain and a mouse f
Notwithstanding tliis opposition, coffee soon became a
favourite drink, and the shops where it was sold, places of
general resort.
There appears to have been a great anxiety that the
Coffee-house, while open to all ranks, should be conducted
under such restraints as might prevent the better class of
customers from being annoyed. Acpordingly, the following
regulations, printed on large sheets of paper, were hung up
in conspicuous positions on the walls :—
" EntfT, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please,
Peruse our civil orders, which are these.
First, gentry, tradesmen, all are welcome hither,
And may without affront sit dovrn together :
Pre-eminence of place none here should mind.
But take the next fit seat that he can find ;
Nor need any, if finer persons come,
Rise up for to assign to them his room ; ,
To limit men's expense, we think not fair.
But let him forfeit twelve-pence that shall swear
Four Swans Inn, Bishopsgate Stieet Within.
m -^
■--1 :;■/. ~^1^ >T'»^
Homsey Wood House. {Gun Clubs and Bean Feasts.)
GAKRA IVA Y'S COFFEE-HOVSZ. 273
He that shall any quarrel here begin,
•» Shall give each man a dish t' atone the sin ;
And so. shall he, whose compliments extend
So far to drink in coffee to his friend ;
Let noise of loud disputes be quite forborne.
Nor maudlin lovers here in comers mourn,
But all be brisk and talk, but not too much ;
On sacred things, let none presume to touch,
Nor profane Scripture, nor saucily wrong
Affairs of state with an irreverent tongue :
Let mirth be innocent, and each man see
That all his jests without reflection be ;
To keep the house more quiet and from blame.
We banish hence cards, dice, and every game ;
Nor can allow of wagers, that exceed
Five shillings, which ofttimes do troubles breed ;
Let all that's lost or forfeited be spent
In such good liquor ss the house doth vent.
And customers endeavour, to their powers.
For to observe still, seasonable hours.
Lastly, let each man what he calls for pay,
A nd so you're welcome to come every day.
In a print of the period, five persons are shown in a
coffee-house, one smoking, evidently, from their dresses, of
different ranks of hfe : they are seated at a table, on which
are small basins without saucers, and tobacco-pipes, while a
waiter is serving the coffee.
Garraway 's Coffee- H ouse.
This noted Coffee-house, situated in Change-alley, Corn-
hill, has a threefold celebrity : tea was first sold in England,
here ; it was a place of great resort in the time of the South
Sea Bubble ; and has since been a place of great mercantile
transactions. The original proprietor was Thomas Garway,
tobacconist and coffee-man, the first who retailed tea,
recommending for the cure of all disorders. The following
is the substance of his shop bill : — " Tea in England hath
been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten
T
274 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
pounds the pound weight, and in respect of 'its former
scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia
in high treatments and entertainments, and presents made
thereof to princes and grandees till the year 1651. The
said Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and
first publicly sold the said tea in leaf and drink, made
according to the directions of the most knowing merchants
and travellers into those Eastern countries j and upon
knowledge and experience of the said Garway's continued
care and industry in obtaining the best tea, and making
drink thereof, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants,
and gentlemen of quality, have ever since sent to him for
the said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Exchange-
alley, aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof; and to the end
that all persons of eminence and quality, gentlemen, and
others, who have occasion for tea in leaf, may be supplied,
these are to give notice that the said Thomas Garway hath
tea to sell from ' sixteen to fifty shillings per pound.' " (See
the document entire in Ellis's "Letters," series iv., 58.)
Ggilby, the compiler of the Britannia, had his standing
lottery of books at Mr. Garway's Coffee-house from April 7,
1673, till wholly drawn oif. And, in the "Journey through
England," 1722, Garraway's, Robins's, and Joe's, are de-
scribed as the three celebrated Coffee-houses : in th'e first,
the People of Quality, who have business in the City, and
the most considerable and wealthy citizens frequent. In the
second the Foreign Banquiers, and often even Foreign
Ministers. And in the third, the Buyers and Sellers of
Stock.
Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle,"
that is, by auction, while an inch of candle bums. In the
Tatler, No. 147, we read : " Upon my coming home last
night, I found a very handsome present of French wine left
for me, as a taste of 216 hogsheads, which are to be put to
sale ' at 20/. a hogshead, at Garraway's Coffee-house, in
Exchange-alley," &c. The sale by candle is not, however,
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 275
by candle-light, but during the day. At the commencement
of the sale, when the auctioneer has read a description of
the property, and the conditions on which it is to be dis-
posed of, a piece of candle, usually an inch long, is lighted,
and he who is the last bidder at the time the light goes out
is declared the purchaser.
Swift, in his "Ballad on the South Sea Scheme," 1721,
did not forget Garraway's : —
There is a gulf, where thousands fell,
Here all the bold adventurers came,
A narrow sound, though deep as hell,
'Change alley is the dreadful name.
Subscribers here by thousands float,
And jostle one another down,
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.
Now buried in the depths below,
Now mounted up to heaven again,
They reel and stagger to and fro,
At their wits' end, like drunken men.
Meantime secure on Garway cliffs,
A savage race, by shipwiecks fed,
Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs,
And strip the bodies of the dead.
Dr. Radclifte, who was a rash speculator in the South
Sea Scheme, was usually planted at a table at Garraway's
about Exchange time, to watch the turn of the market ; and
here he was seated when the footman of his powerful rival,
Dr. Edward Hannes, came into Garraway's and inquired,
Ity way of a puff, if Dr. H. was there. Dr. RadclifFe, who
was surrounded with several apothecaries and chirurgeons
that flocked about him, cried out, " Dr. Hannes was not
there," and desired to know "who wanted him?" the
fellow's reply was, " such a lord and such a lord ;" but he
was taken up with the dry rebuke, " No, no, friend, you are
mistaken ; the Doctor wants those lords." One of Rad-
cliffe's ventures was five thousand guineas upon one South
T 3
276 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Sea project. When he was told at Garrawa/s that 'twas all
lost, " Why," said he, " 'tis but going up five thousand pair
of stairs more." " This answer," says Tom Brown, " deserved
a statue."
As a Coffee-house, and one of the oldest class, which has
withstood, by the well-acquired fame of its proprietors, the
ravages of time, and the changes that economy and new
generations produce, none can be compared to Garraway's.
This name must be familiar with most people in and out of
the City ; and, notwithstanding our disposition to make
allowance for the want of knowledge some of our neighbours
of the West-end profess in relation to men and things east
of Temple Bar, it must be supposed that the noble person-
age who said, when asked by a merchant to pay him a visit
in one of these places, " that he willingly would, if his friend
could tell him where to change horses," had forgotten this
establishment, which fostered so great a quantity of dis-
honoured paper, when in other City coffee-houses it had
gone begging at \s. and 2s. in the pound.*
Garraway's has long been famous as a sandwich and
drinking-room, for sherry, pale ale, and punch. Tea and
coffee are still served. It is said that the sandwich-
maker is occupied two hours in cutting and arranging the
sandwiches before the day's consumption commences. The
sale-room is an old-fashioned first-floor apartment, with a
small rostrum for the seller, and a few commonly grained
settles for the buyers. Here sales of drugs, mahogany, and
timber are periodically held. Twenty or thirty property
and other sales sometimes take place in a day. The walls
and windows of the lower room are covered with sale
placards, which are unsentimental evidences of the muta-
bility of human affairs.
" In 1840 and 1841, when the tea speculation was at its
height, and prices were fluctuating dd. and Zd. per pound, on
* The City, 2nd edition.
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 277
the arrival of every mail, Garraway's was frequented every
night by a host of the smaller fry of dealers, when there was
more excitement than ever occurred on 'Change when the
most important intelligence arrived. Champagne and an-
chovy toasts were the order of the night ; and every one
came, ate and drank, and went, as he pleased, without the
least question concerning the score, yet the bills were
discharged ; and this plan continued for several months."—
The City.
Here, likewise, we find this redeeming picture : — " The
members of the little coterie, who take the dark corner
under the clock, have for years visited this house ; they
number two or three old, steady merchants, a solicitor, and
a gentleman who almost devotes the whole of his time and
talents to philanthropic objects, — for instance, the getting
up of a Ball for Shipwrecked Mariners and their families ; or
the organization of a Dinner for the benefit of the Distressed
Needlewomen of the Metropolis ; they are a very quiet
party, and enjoy the privilege of their seance, uninterrupted
by visitors."
We may here mention a tavern of the South Sea time,
where the " Globe permits " fraud was very successful.
These were nothing more than square pieces of card on
which was a wax seal of the sign of the Globe Tavern,
situated in the neighbourhood of Change-alley, with the in-
scription, "Sail-cloth Permits.'' The possessors enjoyed
no other advantage from them than permission to subscribe
at some future time to a new sail-cloth manufactory pro-
jected by one who was known to be a man of fortune, but
who was afterwards involved in the peculation and punish-
ment of the South Sea Directors. These permits sold for
as much as sixty guineas in the Alley.
278
Jonathan's Coffee-Chouse.
This is another Change-alley Cofifee-house, which is de-
scribed in the Toiler^ No. 38, as " the general mart of stock-
jobbers j" and the Spectator, No. i, tells- us that he " some-
times passes for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers, af
Jonathan's." This was the rendezvous, where gambling of
all sorts was carried on, notwithstanding a former prphibi-
tion against the assemblage of the jobbers, issued by the
City of London, which prohibition continued unrepealed
until 1825.
In the "Anatomy of Exchange Alley," 17 19, we read : —
" The centre of the jobbing is in the kingdom of Exchange-
alley and its adjacencies. The limits are easily surrounded
in about a minute and a half — Viz., stepping out of Jona-
than's into the Alley, you turn your face full south ; moving
on a . few paces, ■ and then turning due east, you advance
to Garraway's ; from thence going out at the other door,
you go on still east into Birchin-lane ; and then halting a
little at the Sword-blade Bank, to do much mischief in
fewest words, you immediately face to the north, enter
Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces there in your
way west j and thus having boxed your compass, and sailed
roimd the whole stock-jobbing globe, you turn into Jona-
than's again.; and so, as most of the great follies of life
oblige us to do, yovi end, just where you began."
Mrs. Centlivre, in her comedy of A Sold Stroke for a
Wife, has a scene from Jonathan's at the above period :
while the stock-jobbers are talking, the coffee-boys are
crying " Fresh coffee, gentlemen, fresh coffee ! Bohea tea,
gentlemen 1"
Here is another picture of Jonathan's, during the South
Sea mania ; though not by an eye-witness, it groups, from
various authorities, the life of the place and the time: — "At
JONATHAN'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 279
a table a few yards off sat a couple of men engaged in the
discussion of a newly-started scheme. Plunging his hand
impatiently under the deep silver-buttoned flap of his frock-
coat of cinnamon cloth and drawing out a paper, the more
business-looking of the pair commenced eagerly to read out
figures intended to convince the listener, who took a
jewelled snufF-box from the deep pocket of the green
brocade waistcoat which overflapped his thigh, and, tapping
the lid, enjoyed a pinch of perfumed Turkish as he leaned
back lazily in his chair. Somewhat further oif, standing in
the middle of the room, was a keen-eyed lawyer, counting
on his fingers the probable results of a certain speculation
in human hair, to which a fresh-coloured farmer from St.
Albans, on whose boots the mud of the cattle market was
not dry, listened with a face of stolid avarice, clutching the
stag-horn handle of his thonged whip as vigorously as if it
were the wealth he coveted. There strode a Nonconformist
divine, with S. S. S. in every line of his face, greedy for the
gold that perisheth ; here a bishop, whose truer place was
Garraway's, edged his cassock through the crowd ; sturdy
ship-captains, whose manners smack of blustering breezes,
and who hailed their acquaintance as if through a speaking-
trumpet in a storm — bookseller's hacks from Grub-street,
who were wont to borrow ink-bottles and just one sheet of
paper at the bar of the Black Swan in St. Martin's-lane, and
whose tarnished lace, when not altogether torn away, showed
a suspicious coppery redness underneath — ^Jews of every
grade, from the thriving promoter of a company for import-
ing ashes from Spain or extracting stearine from sunflower
seeds to the seller of sailor slops from Wapping-in-the-Wose,
come to look for a skipper who had bilked him — a sprinkling
of well-to-do merchants — and a host of those flashy hangers-
on to the skirts of commerce, who brighten up in days of
maniacal speculation, and are always ready to dispose of
shares in some unopened mine or some untried invention —
passed and repassed with continuous change and murmur
aSo CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
before the squire's eyes during the quarter of an hour tnat
he sat ^ert."— Pictures of the Periods, by W. F. Collier,
LL.D.
Rainbow Coffee-house.
The Rainbow, in Fleet-street, appears to have been the
second Coffee-house opened in the metropolis.
" The first Coffee-house in London," says Aubrey (MS.
in the Bodleian Library), " was in St. Michael's-alley, in
Comhill, opposite to the church, which was set up by one
Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey mer-
chant, who putt him upon it), in or about the yeare 1652.
'Twas about four yeares before any other was sett up, and
that was by Mr. Farr." This was the Rainbow.
Another account states that one Edwards, a Turkey
merchant, on his return from the East, brought with him a
Ragusian Greek servant, named Pasqua Rosee, who pre-
pared coffee every morning for his master, and with the
coachman above named set up the first Coffee-house in St.
Michael's-alley ; but they soon quarrelled and separated, the
coachman establishing himself in St Michael's churchyard.
■ — (See pp. 270 and 271, ante.)
Aubrey wrote the above in 1680, and Mr. Farr had then
become a person of consequence. In his "Lives" Aubrey
notes : — "When coffee first came in, Sir Henry Blount was
a great upholder of it, and hath ever since been a great
frequenter of coffee-houses, especially Mr. Farre's, at the
Rainbowe, by Inner Temple Gate."
Farr was originally a barber. His success as a coffee-
man appears to have annoyed his neighbours ; and at the
inquest at St. Dunstan's, Dec. 21st, 1657, among the pre-
sentments of nuisances were the following : — " We present
James Farr, barber, for making and selling of a drink called
coffee, whereby in making the same he annoyeth his neigh-
bours by evill smells ; and for keeping of fire for the most
part night and day, wherebv his chimney and chamber hath
RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE. 28t
been set on fire, to the great danger and affrightment of his
neighbours." However, Farr was not ousted ; he probably
promised reform, or amended the alleged annoyance : he
remained at the Rainbow, and rose to be a person of emi-
nence and repute in the parish. He issued a token, date
1666 — an arched rainbow based on clouds, doubtless,
from the Great Fire — to indicate that with him all was yet
safe, and the Rainbow still radiant. There is one of his
tokens in the Beaufoy collection, at Guildhall, and so far as
is known to Mr. Burn, the rainbow, does not occur on any
other tradesman's token. The house was let off into tene-
ments : books were printed here at this very time " for
Samuel Speed, at the sign of the Rainbow, near the Inner
Temple Gate, in Fleet-street." The Phoenix Fire Office was
established here about 1682. Hatton, in 1708, evidently
attributed Farr's nuisance to the coffee itself, saying : " Who
would have thought London would ever have had three
thousand such nuisances, and that coffee would have been
(as now) so much drank by the best of quality, and physi-
cians ?" The nuisance was in Farr's chimney and careless-
ness, not in the coffee. Yet, in our statute-book anno 1660
(12 Car. II. c. 24), a duty of 4(/. was laid upon every gallon
of coffee made and sold. A statute of 1663 directs that all
Coffee-houses should be licensed at the Quarter Sessions.
And in 1675, Charles II. issued a proclamation to shut up
the Coffee-houses, charged with being seminaries of sedition;
but in a few days he suspended this proclamation by a
second.
The Spectator, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of
the Rainbow : — " I have received a letter desiring me to be
very satirical upon the little muff that is now in fashion ;
another informs me of a pair of silver garters buckled below
the knee, that have been lately seen at the Rainbow Coffee-
house in Fleet-street."
Mr. Moncrieff, the dramatist, used to tell that about 1780,
this house was kept by his grandfather, Alexander Moncrieff,
282 CLUB LIFE OF LOJ^DON.
when it retained its original title of "The Rainbow Coffee-
house." The old Coffee-room had a lofty bay-window, at
the south end, lookmg into the Temple : and the room was
separated from the kitchen only by a glazed partition : in
the bay was the table for the elders. The house has long
been a tavern ; all the old rooms have been swept away,
and a large and lofty dining-room erected in their place.
In a paper read to the British Archaological Association,
by Mr. E. B. Price, we find coffee and canary thus brought
into interesting comparison, illustrated by the exhibition of
one of Farr's Rainbow tokens ; and another inscribed " At
the Canary- House iii the Strand, id., 1665," bearing also
the word " Canary " in the monogram. Having noticed the
prosecution of Farr, and his triumph over his fellow-parish-
ioners, Mr. Price says : — " The opposition to coffee con-
tinued j people viewed it with distrust, and even with alarm •
and we can sympathize with them in their alarm, when we
consider that they entertained a notion that coffee would
eventually put an end to the species ; that the genus homo
would some day or other be utterly extinguished. With our
knowledge of the beneficial effect of this article on the com-
munity, and its almost universal adoption in the present day,
we may smile, and wonder while we smile, at the bare possi-
bility of such a notion ever having prevailed. That it did
so, we have ample evidence in the " Women's Petition against
Coffee," in the year 1674, cited by DTsraeli, "Curiosities of
Literature," vol. iv., and in which they complain that coffee
" made men as unfruitful as the deserts whence that un-
happy berry is said to be brought : that the offspring of our
mighty ancestors would dwindle into a succession of apes
and pigmies," &c. The same authority gives us an extract
from a very amusing poem of 1663, in which the writer
wonders that any man should prefer Coffee to Canary, tenn-
ing them English apes, and proudly referring them to the
days of Beaumont and Fletcher and Ben Jonson. They,
says he,
RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE. 283
Drank pure nectar as the gods drink too
Sublimed with rich Canary ; say, shall then
These less than coffee's self, these coffee-men,
These sons of nothing, that can hardly make
Their broth for laughing how the jest does take.
Yet grin, and give ye for the vine's pure blood
A loathsome potion — not yet understood,
Syrup of soot, or essence of old shoes,
Dasht with diumals or the book of news ?
One of the weaknesses of "rare Ben" was his penchant
for canary. And it would seem that the Mermaid, in Bread-
street, was the house in which he enjoyed it most :
But that which most doth take my muse and me.
Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine,
Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine.
Granger states that Charles I. raised Ben's pension from
100 marks to 100 pounds, and added a tierce of canary,
which salary and its appendage, he says, have ever since
been continued to poets laureate.
Reverting to the Rainbow (says Mr. Price), "it has been
frequently remarked by ' tavern-goers,' that many of our
snuggest and most comfortable taverns are hidden from
vulgar gaze, and unapproachable except through courts,
blind alleys, or but half-lighted passages." Of this descrip-
tion was the house in question. But few of its many nightly,
or rather midnightly patrons and frequenters, knew aught of
it beyond its famed " stewed cheeses," and its " stout," with
the various " et ceteras" of good cheer. They little dreamed,
and perhaps as little cared to know, that, more than two
centuries back, the Rainbow flourished as a bookseller's
shop ; as appears by the title-page of Trussell's " History
of England," which states it to be "printed by M.D., for
Ephraim Dawson, and are to bee sold in Fleet Street, at
the signe of the Rainbowe, neere the Inner-Temple
Gate, 1636."
284
Nando's Coffee-house
Was the house at the east comer of Inner Temple-lane,
No. 17, Fleet-street, and next door to the shop of Bernard
Lintot, the bookseller ; though it has been by some con-
fused with Groom's house. No. 16. Nando's was the
favourite haunt of Lord Thurlow, before he dashed into law
practice. At this Coffee-house a large attendance of pro-
fessional loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch
and the charms of the landlady, which, with the small wits,
were duly admired by and at the bar. One evening, the
famous cause of Douglas v. the Duke of Hamilton was the
topic of discussion, when Thurlow being present, it was
suggested, half in earnest, to appoint him junior counsel,
which was done. This employment brought him acquainted
with the Duchess of Queensberry, who saw at once the value
of a man like Thurlow, and recommended Lord Bute to
secure him by a silk gown.
The house, formerly Nando's, has been for many years
a hairdresser's. It is inscribed "Formerly the palace of
Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey." The structure is of
the time of James I., and has an enriched ceiling inscribed P
(triple plumed).
This was the office in which the Council for the Manage-
ment of the Duchy of Cornwall Estates held their sittings ;
for in the Calendar of State Papers, edited by Mrs. Green,
is the following entry, of the time of Charles, created Prince
of Wales four years after the death of Henry: — "1619,
Feb. 25 ; Prince's Council Chamber, Fleet-street. — Council of
the Prince of Wales to the Keepers of Brancepeth, Raby,
and Barnard Castles : The trees blown down are only to be
used for mending the pales, and no wood to be cut for fire-
wood, nor browse for the deer."
28s
Dick's Coffee-house.
This old Coffee-house, No. 8, Fleet-street (south side,
near Temple Bar), was originally " Richard's," named from
Richard Tomer, or Turner, to whom the house was let in
1680. The Coffee-room retains its olden paneling, and the
staircase its original balusters.
The interior of Dick's Coffee-house is engraved as a
frontispiece to a drama, called The Coffee-house, performed
at Drury-lane Theatre in 1737. The piece met with great
opposition on its representation, owing to its being stated
that the characters were intended for a particular family
(that of Mrs. Yarrow and her daughter), who kept Dick's,
the coffee-house which the artist had inadvertently selected
as the frontispiece.
It appears that the landlady and her daughter were the
reigning toast of the Templars, who then frequented Dick's;
and took the matter up so strongly that they united to con-
demn the farce on the night of its production ; they suc-
ceeded, and even extended their resentment to everything
suspected to be this author's (the Rev. James Miller) for a
considerable time after.
Richard's, as it was then called, was frequented by
Cowper, when he lived in the Temple. In his own account
of his insanity, Cowper tells us : " At breakfast I read the
newspaper, and in it a letter, which, the further I perused
it, the more closely engaged my attention. I cannot now
recollect the purport of it ; but before I had finished it, it
appeared demonstratively true to me that it was a libel or
satire upon me. The author appeared to be acquainted
with my purpose of self-destruction, and to have written
that letter on purpose to secure and hasten the execution of
it. My mind, probably, at this time began to be disordered ;
however it was, I war, certainly given to a strong delusion.
I said within myself, ' Your cruelty shall be gratified ; you
286 CL UB LIFE OF LONDON.
shall have your revenge,' and flinging down the paper in a
fit of strong passion, I rushed hastily out of the room;
directing my way towards the fields, where I intended to
find some house to die in ; or, if not, determined to poison
myself; in a ditch, where I could meet with one sufficiently,
retired."
It is worth while to revert to the earlier tenancy of the
Coflfee-house, which was, wholly or in part, the original
printing-office of Richard Tottel, law-printer to Edward VI.,
Queens Mary and Elizabeth ; the premises were attached
to No. 7, Fleet-street, which bore the sign of " The Hand
and Starre," where Tottel lived, and published the law and
other works he printed. No. 7 was subsequently occupied
by Jaggard and Joel Stephens, eminent law-printers, temp.
Geo. I. — III. ; and at the present day the house is most
appropriately occupied by Messrs. Butterworth, who follow
the occupation Tottel did in the days of Edward VI., being
law-pubUshers to Queen Victoria; and they possess the
original leases, from the earliest grant, in the reign of
Henry VIII., the period of their own purchase.
The "Lloyd's" of the Time of Charles II.
During the reign of Charles II., Coffee-houses grew into
such favour, that they quickly spread over the metropolis,
and were the usual meeting-places of the roving cavaliers,
who seldom visited home but to sleep. The following song,
from Jordan's "Triumphs of London, 1675," affords a very
curious picture of the manners of the times, and the sort of
conversation then usually met with in a well-frequented
house of the sort, — the " Lloyd's " of the seventeenth
century : —
You that delight in wit and mirth,
And love to hear such news
That come from all parts of the earth,
Turks, Dutch, and Danes, and Jews ;
"LLOYD'S" IN. THE TIME OF CHARLES IL 187
I'll send ye to the rendezvous,
Where it is smoaking new ;
Go hear it at a coffee-house.
It cannot but be true.
There battails and sea-fights are fought,
And bloudy plots displaid ;
They know more things than e'er was thought,
Or ever was bewray'd :
No money in the minting-house
Is half so bright and new ;
And coming from the Coffes-Hotise,
It cannot but be true.
Before the navies fell to work,
They knew who should be winner ;
They there can tell ye what the Turk
Last Sunday had to dinner.
Who last did cut Du Ruiter's* corns,
Amongst his jovial crew ;
Or who first gave the devil horns,
AVhicli cannot but be true.
A fisherman did boldly tell,
And strongly did avouch,
He caught a shole of mackerell.
They parley'd all in Dutch ;
And cry'd out. Yaw, yaw, yaw, mine hare.
And as the draught they drew.
They stunk for fear that Monkt was there :
This sounds as if 'twere true.
There's nothing done in all the world,
From monarch to the mouse ;
But every day or night 'tis hurl'd
Into the coffee-house :
• The Dutch admiral who, in June, 1667, dashed into the Downs
with a fleet of eighty sail, and many fire-ships, blocked up the mouths
of the Medway and Thames, destroyed the fortifications at Sheemess,
cut away the paltry defences of booms and chains drawn across the
rivers, and got to Chatham, on the one side, and nearly to Gravesend
on the other, the king having spent in debauchery the money voted by
Parliament for the proper support of the English navy.
+ General Monk and Prince Rupert were at this time commanders of
the English fleet.
a»8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
What Lilly* or what Bookert cou'd
By art not bring about,
At Coffee-house you'll find a brood,
Can quickly find it out.
They know who shall in times to come,
Be either made or undone,
From great St. Peter's-street in Rome,
To Tumbal-streett ™ London.
They know all that is good or hurt,
To damn ye or to save ye ;
There is the college and the court,
The country, camp, and navy.
So great an university,
I think there ne'er was any ;
In which you may a scholar be.
For spending of a penny.
Here men do talk of everything.
With large and liberal lungs.
Like women at a gossiping,
With double tire of tongues.
They'll give a broadside presently,
'Soon as you are in view :
With stories that you'll wonder at,
Which they will swear are true.
• Lilly was the celebrated astrologer of the Protectorate, who earned
great fame at that time by predicting, in June, 1645, " if now we fight,
a victory stealeth upon us :" a lucky guess, signally verified in the King's
defeat at Naseby. Lilly thenceforth always saw the stars favourable to
the Puritans.
t This man was originally a fishing-tackle-maker in Tower-street,
during the reign of Charles I. ; but turning enthusiast, he went about
prognosticating " the downfall of the King and Popery;" and as he and
his predictions were all on the popular side, he became a great man
with the superstitious "godly brethren" of that day.
% Turnbal, or TurnbuU-street, as it is still called, had been for a
century previous of infamous repute. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play,
the Knight of the Burning Pestle, one of the ladies who is undergoing
penance at the barber's, has her character sufficiently pointed out to the
audience, in her declaration, that she had been "stolen from her friends
in Turnbal-street. "
LLOYDS COFFEE-HOUSE. 289
You shall know there what fashions are,
How periwigs are curl'd ;
And for a penny you shall hear
All novels in the world ;
Both old and young, and great and small.
And rich and poor you'll see ;
Therefore let's to the Coffee all,
Come all away with me.
Lloyd's Coffee-house.
Lloyd's is one of the earliest establishments of the kind j
it is referred to in a poem printed in the year 1700, called
the Wealthy Shopkeeper, or Charitable Christian :
Now to Lloyd's coffee-house he never fails,
To read the letters, and attend the sales.
In 1 7 10, Steele (Taller, No. 246) dates from Lloyd's his
Petition on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvendors. And
Addison, in Spectator, April 23, 17 11, relates this droll
incident : — " About a week since there happened to me a
very odd accident, by reason of which one of these my
papers of minutes which I had accidentally dropped at
Lloyd's Coffee-house, where the auctions are usually kept.
Before I missed it, there were a cluster of people who had
found it, and were diverting themselves with it at one end
of the coffee-house. It had raised so much laughter among
them before I observed what they were about, that I had
not the courage to own it. The boy of the coffee-house,
when they had done with it, carried it about in his hand,
asking everybody if they had dropped a written paper ; but
nobody challenging it, he was ordered by those merry
gentlemen who had before perused it, to get up into the
auction pulpit, and read it to the whole room, that if
anybody would own it they might. The boy accordingly
mounted the pulpit, and with a very audible voice read what
proved to be minutes, which made the whole coffee-house
very merry : some of them concluded it was written by a
29° CLUB LIFE OF LOh'DON.
madman, and others by somebody that had been;taking notes
out of the Spectator. After it was read, and the boy was
coming out of the pulpit, the Spectator reached his arm out,
and desired the boy to give it him; which was done
according. This drew the whole eyes of the company upon
the Spectator ; but after casting a cursory glance over it, he
shook his head twice or thriceat the reading of it, twisted it
into a kind of match, and lighted his pipe with it. 'My
profound silence,' says the Spectator, ' together with the
stea,diness of my countenance, and the gravity of my be-
haviour during the whole transaction, raised a very loud
laugh on all sides of me ; but as I had escaped all suspicion
of being the author, I was very well satisfied, and applying
myself to my pipe and \h.<t Postman, took no further notice
of anything that passed about me.' "
. Nothing is positively known of the original Lloyd ; but in
1750, there was issued an Irregular Ode, entitled^ Summer's
Farewell to the Gulph of Venice, in the Southwell Frigate,
Captain Manly, jun., commanding, stated to be "-printed for
Lloyd, well-known for obliging the public with, the Freshest
and Most Authentic Ship News; and sold by A. More, near
St. Paul's, and at the Pamphlet Shops in London and
Westminster, MDCCL." •■ ■
:. In the Gentkjnan's Magazine, fori 1740, we read :t—
"11 March, 1740,' Mr. Baker, Master of Lloyd's CpfF^e-
house, in: Lombard-street, waited on Sir Robert Walpolg
\vith the news of Admiral Vernon's taking Portobello. This
was the 'first account ' received thereof, and proving true. Sir
Robert was pleased to order him a handsome present."
Lloyd's is, perhaps, the oldest collective establishment' in
the City. It was first under the management of a single
individual, who .started it as a room where, the underwriters
and insurers of ships' cargoes could meet for refreshment
and conversation. The Coffee-house was originally in
Lombard-street, at .the.cornec of.AbGhurch-Iane; subse-
qu^ritly in, Pope's-head-alley,i where it was called "New
LLOYD'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 291
Lloyd's Coffee-house;" but on February 14th, 1774, it ivas
removed to the north-west corner of the Royal Exchange,
where it remained until the destruction of that building .by
fire.
In rebuilding the Exchange, a fine suite of. apartments
was provided for Lloyd's " Subscription Rooms," which are
the rendezvous of the most eminent merchants, Shipowners,
underwriters, insurance, stock, and exchange brokers. Here
is obtained the earliest news of the arrival and sailing of
vessels, losses at sea, captures^ recaptures, engagements, and
other shipping intelligence ; and proprietory of ships and
fireights are insured by the. underwriters. The rooms are in
the Venetian style,, with Roman enrichments. They are —
I. The Subscribers' or Underwriters', the Merchants', and
the Captains' Room, At the entrance of the room are
exhibited the Shipping Lists, received from Lloyds' agents
at home and abroad; and affording particulars of departures
or arrivals of vessels, wrecks, salvage, or sale of property
saved, etc. To the right and left are " Lloyd's Books," two
enormous ledgers : right hand, ships " spoken with,'' or
arrived at their destined ports ; left hand : records of wrecks,
fires, or severe collisions, written in a fine Roman hand, in
" double lines." To assist the underwriters in their calcular
tions, at the end of the room is an Anemometer, which
registers the state of the wind day and night ; attached is a
rain-gauge. : ■; - '
The life of the underwriter is one of great anxiety and
speculation. '.' Among the old stagers_of , the room, there is
often strong antipathy to the insurance of certain ships. In
the case of one'vessel it was strangely followed out. She
was a steady trader, named after one of the most venerable
members of the room ; and it was a curious coincidence that
he invariably refused to 'write her' for * a single line.'
Often he was joked upon the subject, and pressed to ' do a
litde' for his namesake ; but he as often declined, shaking
his head in a doubtful manner. One morning the sub-
u 2
292 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
scribers were reading the ' double lines,' or the losses, and
among them was this identical ship, which had gone to
pieces, and become a total wreck." — " The City," 2nd edit,
1848.
The Merchants' Room is superintended by a master, "who
can speak several languages : here are duplicate copies of
the books in the Underwriters' Room, and files of English
and foreign newspapers.
The Captains' Room is a kind of coffee-room, where
merchants and ship-owners meet captains, and sales of ships,
etc., take place.
The members of Lloyd's have ever been distinguished by
their loyalty and benevolent spirit. In 1802, they voted
2000/. to the Life-boat subscription. On July 20, 1803, at
the invasion panic, they commenced the Patriotic Fund
with 20,000/. 3-per-cent. Consols; besides 70,312/. is.
individual subscriptions, and 15,000/. additional donations.
After the battle of the Nile, in 1798, they collected for the
widows and wounded seamen 32,423/. ; and after Lord
Howe's victory, June i, 1794, for similar purposes, 21,281/.
They have also contributed 5000/. to the London Hospital ;
1000/ for the suffering inhabitants of Russia in 1813 ; 1000/.
for the relief of the militia in our North American colonies,
18 13; and 10,000/. for the Waterloo subscription, in 18 15.
The Committee vote medals and rewards to those who
distinguish themselves in saving life from shipwreck.
Some years since, a member of Lloyd's drew from the
books the following lines of names contained therein : —
A Black and a White, with a Brown and a Green,
And also a Gray at Lloyd's room may be seen ;
With Parson and Clark, then a Bishop and Pryor,
And Water, how Strange adding fuel to fire ;
While, at the same time, 'twill sure pass belief,
There's a Winter, a Garland, Furze, Bud, and a Leaf;
With Freshfield, and Greenhill, Lovegrove, and a Dale ;
Though there's never a Breeze, there's always a Gale.
THE JERUSALEM COFFEE-HOUSE. 293
No music is there, though a Whistler and Harper ;
There's a Blunt and a Sharp, many flats, but no sharper.
There's a Danniell, a Samuel, a Sampson, an Abell ;
The first and the last write at the same table.
Then there's Virtue and Faith there, with Wylie and Rasch,
Disagreeing elsewhere, yet at Lloyd's never clash.
There's a Long and a Short, Small, Little, and Fatt,
With one Robert Dewar, who ne'er wears his hat :
No drinking goes on, though there's Porter and Sack,
Lots of Scotchmen there are, beginning with Mac ;
Macdonald, to wit, Macintosh and McGhie,
McFarquhar, McKenzie, McAndrew, Mackie.
An evangelized Jew, and an infidel Quaker ;
There's a Bunn and a Pye, with a Cook and a Baker,
Though no Tradesmen or Shopmen are found, yet herewith
Is a Taylor, a Saddler, a Paynter, a Smyth ;
Also Butler and Chapman, with Butter and Glover,
Come up to Lloyd's room their bad risks to cover.
Fox, Shepherd, Hart, Buck, likewise come every day ;
And though many an ass, there is only one Bray.
There is a Mill and Miller, A-dam and a Poole,
A Constable, Sheriff, a Law, and a Rule.
There's a Newman, a Niemann, a Redman, a Pitman,
Now to rhyme with the last, there is no other fit man.
These, with Young, Cheap, and Lent, Luckie, Hastie, and Slow,
With dear Mr. Allnutt, Allfrey, and Auldjo,
Are all the queer names that at Lloyd's I can show.
Many of these individuals are now deceased; but a
frequenter of Lloyd's in former years will recognize the
persons mentioned.
The Jerusalem Coffee-house,
Comhill, is one of the oldest of the City news-rooms, and is
frequented by merchants and captains connected with the
commerce of China, India, and Australia.
" The subscription-room is well-furnished with files of the
principal Canton, Hongkong, Macao, Penang, Singapore,
Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Sydney, Hobart Town, Laun-
ceston, Adelaide, and Port Phillip papers, and Prices
294 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Current : besides shipping lists and papers from the various
intermediate stations or ports touched at, as St. Helena, the
Cape of Good Hope, etc. The .books of East India
shipping include arrivals, departures, casualties, etc. The
full business is between two and three o'clock, p.m. In
1845, John Tawell, the Slough murderer, was capturdd at
[traced to] the Jerusalem, which he was in the habit of
visiting, to ascertain information of the state of his property
in Sydney."—" The City," 2nd edit., 1848.
Baker's Coffee-house,
Change-alley, is remembered as a tavern some forty years
since. The landlord, after whom it is named, may possibly
have been a descendant from " Baker," the master of
Lloyd's Rooms. It has been, for many years, a chop-
house, with direct service from the gridiron, and upon
pewter ; though on the first-floor, joint dinners are served :
its post-prandial punch was formerly much drunk. In the
lower room is a, portrait of James, thirty-five years waiter here.
Coffee-houses in Ned Ward's Time.
Of Ward's " Secret History " of the Clubs of his time we
have already given several specimens. Little is known of
him personally. Hewaj, probably, born in 1660, and early
in life he visited the West Indies. Some time before 1669,
he kept a tavern and punch-house, "next door to Gray's Inn,
of which we shall speak hereafter. His works are now
rarely to be met with. His doggrel secured him a place in
the Dunciad, where not only his elevation to the pillory is
mentioned, but the fact is also alluded to that his produc-
tions were extensively shipped to the Plantations or Colonies
of those days, —
Nor sail with Ward to ape-and-monkey climes^
Where vile mundungus trucks for viler rhymes,
COFFEE-HOUSES W. NED WARD'S TIME. 295
the only places, probably, where they were extensively
read. In return for the doubtful celelDrity thus conferred
upon his rhymes, he attacked the satirist in a wretched pro-
duction, intituled " Apollo's Maggot in his Cups ;" his expir-
ing effort, probably, for he died on the 22nd of June, 1731.
His remains were buried in the churchyard of Old St. Pancras,
his body being followed to the grave solely by his wife and
daughter, as directed by him in his poetical will, written
some six years before, We learn from Noble that there are
no less than four engraved portraits of Ned Ward. The
structure of the " London Spy," the only work of his that
at present comes under oui' notice, is simple enough. The
author is self-personified as a countryman, who, tired with
his " tedious confinement to a country hutt," comes up to
London; where he fortunately meets with a quondam
schoolfellow, — a " man about town," in modern phrase, —
who undertakes to introduce him to the various scenes,
sights, and mysteries of the, even then, " great metropolis :"
much like the visit, in fact, from Jerry Hawthorn to Corin-
thian Tom, only anticipated by some hundred a;nd twenty
years. " We should not be at all. surprised (says the Gentle-
-maiis Magazine) to find that the stirring scenes of Pierce
Egan's ' Life in London ' were first ; suggested by more
homely pages of the ' London Spy.' "
At the outset of the work we have a description — not a
very flattering one, certainly — of a common coffee-house of
the day, one of the many hundreds with which London then
teemed. Although coffee had been only known in England
some fifty years, coffee-houses were already among the most
favourite institutions of the land; though they had not as
yet attained the political importance which they acquired in
the days of the Tatier and Spectator, some ten or twelve
years later : —
" ' Come,' says my friend, ' let us step into this coffee-
house here ; as you are a stranger in the town, it will afford
296 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
you some diversion.' Accordingly, in we went, where a
parcel of muddling muckworms were as busy as so many
rats in an old cheese-loft ; some going, some coming, some
scribbling, some talking, some drinking, some smoking,
others jangling; and the whole room stinking of tobacco,
like a Dutch scoot [schuyt], or a boatswain's cabin. The
walls were hung round with gilt frames, as a farrier's shop
with horse-shoes ; which contained abundance of rarities,
viz.. Nectar and Ambrosia, May-dew, Golden Elixirs,
Popular Pills, Liquid Snuff, Beautifying Waters, Dentifrices,
Drops, and Lozenges ; all as infallible as the Pope, ' Where
every one (as the famous Saffold° has it) above the rest,
Deservedly has gain'd the name of best:' every medicine
being so catholic, it pretends to nothing less than univer-
sality. So that, had not my friend told me 'twas a coffee-
house, I should have taken it for Quacks' Hall, or the
parlour of some eminent mountebank. We each of us
stuck in our mouths a pipe of sotweed, and now began to
look about us.''
A description of Man's Coffee-house, situate in Scotland-
yard, near the water-side, is an excellent picture of a
fashionable coffee-house of the day. It took its name from
the proprietor, Alexander Man, and was sometimes known
as Old Man's, or the Royal Coffee-house, to distinguish it
from Young Man's and ] ,itlle Man's, minor establishments
in the neighbourhood : —
" We now ascended a pair of stairs, which brought us
into an old-fashioned room, where a gaudy crowd of
odoriferous Tom-Essences were walking backwards and
^forwards with their hats in their hands, not daring to con-
vert them to their intended use, lest it should put the
• foretops of their wigs into some disorder. We squeezed
through till we got to the end of the room, where, at a
small table, we sat down, and observed that it was as great
a rarity to hear anybody call for a dish of Politiciaris por-
ridge, or any other liquor, as it is to hear a beau call for a
COFFEE-HOUSES OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 297
pipe of tobacco ; their whole exercise being to charge and
discharge their nostrils, and keep the curls of their periwigs
in their proper order. The clashing of their snush-box lids,
in opening and shutting, made more noise than their
tongues. Bows and cringes of the newest mode were here
exchanged, 'twixt friend and friend, with wonderful exact-
ness. They made a humming like so many hornets in a
country chimney, not with their talking, but with their
whispering over their new Minuets and Bories, with their
hands in their pockets, if only freed from their snush-box.
We now began to be thoughtful of a pipe of tobacco ;
whereupon we ventured to call for some instruments of
evaporation, which were accordingly brought us, but with
such a kind of unwillingness, as if they would much rather
have been rid of our company ; for their tables were so very
neat, and shined with rubbing, like the upper-leathers of an
alderman's shoes, and as brown as the top of a country
housewife's cupboard. The floor was as clean swept as a
Sir Courtly's dining-room, which made us look round, to see
if there were no orders hung up to impose the forfeiture of
so much Mop-money upon any person that should spit out
of the chimney-comer. Notwithstanding we wanted an
example to encourage us in our porterly rudeness, we
ordered them to light the wax-candle, by which we ignified
our pipes and blew about our whiffs ; at which several Sir
Foplins drew their faces into as many peevish wrinkles, as
the beaux at the Bow-street Coffee-house, near Covent-
garden, did, when the gentleman in masquerade came in
amongst them, with his oyster-barrel muff and turnip-
buttons, to ridicule their fopperies."
Coffee-houses of the Eighteenth Century.
A cabinet picture of the Coffee-house life of a century
and a half since, is thus given in the well-known " Journey
through England," in 1 714: " I am lodged," says the tourisli
298 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
" ill the street called Pall Mall, the ordinary residence of all
strangers, because of its vicinity to the Queen's Palace, the
Park, the Parliament'House, the Theatres, and the Choco-
late and Coffee-houses, where the best company frequent.
If you would know our manner of living, 'tis thus : wq rise
by nine, and those that frequent great men's levees, find
entertainment at them till eleven, or, as in Holland, go to
tea-tables; aboiit twelve the beau tnonde zs&txiAAt in several
Coffee or Chocolate houses : the best of which are the Cocoa-
tree and White's Chocolate-houses, St. James's, the Smyrna,
Mrs. Rochford'sj and the British Coffee-houses; and all
these so near one another, that in less than an hour you see
the company of them all. We are carried to these places in
chairs (or sedans), which are here very cheap, a guinea a week,
or a shining per hour, and your chairmen serve you for
porters to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at Venice.
" If it be fine weather, we take a tupn into the Park till
two, when we go to dinner ; and if it be dirty, you are enter-
tained at piquet or basset at White's, or you may talk politics
at the Smyrna or St. James's. I must not forget to tell you
that the parties have their different places, where, however,
a stranger is always well received ; but a Whig will no more
go to the Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, than a Tory will be seen
at the Coffee-house, St. James's.
" The Scots go generally to the British, and a mixture of
all sorts to the Smyrna. There are other little Coffee-houses
much frequented in this neighbourhood, — Young, Man's for
officers. Old Man's for stock-jobbers, paymasters, and
courtiers, and Little Man's for sharpers. I never was so
confounded in my life as when I entered into this last: I
saw two or three tables full at faro, heard the box and dice
rattling in the room above stairs, and was surrounded by a
set of sharp faces, that I was afraid would have devoured
me with their eyes. I was glad to drop two or three half-
crowns at faro to get off with a clear skin, and was over-
joyed I so got rid of them.
COFFEE-HOUSES OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 299
" At two, we generally go to dinner ; ordinaries are not so
common here as abroad, yet the French have set up two or
three good ones for the convenience of foreigners in Suifolk-
street, where one is tolerably well served ; but the general
way here is to make a party at the Coffee-house to go to
dine at the tavern, where we sit till six, when we go to the
play; except you are invited to the table of some great man,
which strangers are always courted to, and nobly enter-
tained."
We may here group the leading Coffee-houses,* the prin-
cipal of which will be more fully described hereafter :
"Before 1715, the number of Coffee-houses in London
was reckoned at two thousand. Every profession, trade,
class, party, had its favourite Coffee-house. The lawyers
discussed law or literature, criticized the last new play, or
retailed the freshest Westminster Hall 'bite' at Nando's
or the Grecian, both close on the purlieus of the Temple.
Here the young bloods of the Inns-of-Court paraded their
Indian gowns and lace caps of a morning ; and swaggered
in their lace coats and Mechlin ruffles at night, after
the theatre. The Cits met to discuss the rise and fall of
stocks, and to settle the rate of insurance, at Garraway's or
Jonathan's ; the parsons exchanged university gossip, or
commented on Dr. Sacheverel's last sermon at Truby's or at
Child's in St. Paul's Churchyard ; the soldiers mustered to
grumble over their grievances at Old or Young Man's, near
Charing Cross; the St. James's and the Smyrna were the
head-quarters of the Whig politicians, while the Tories
frequented the Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, all in St. James's-
street ; Scotchmen had their house of call at Forrest's,
Frenchmen at Giles's or Old Slaughter's, in St. Martin's-
lane ; the gamesters shook their elbows in White's and the
Chocolate-houses round Covent Garden ; the virtuosi
honoured the neighbourhood of Gresham College ; and the
* From the National Eeview, No. 8.
300 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
leading wits gathered at Will's, Button's, or Tom's, in Great
Russell-street, where after the theatre was playing at piquet
and the best of conversation till midnight. At all these
places, except a few of the most aristocratic Coifee or Choco-
late-houses of the West-End, smoking was allowed. A penny-
was laid down at the bar on entering, and the price of a dish
of tea or coffee seems to have been two-pence : this charge
covered newspapers and lights. The established frequenters
of the house had their regular seats, and special attention
from the fair lady at the bar, and the tea or coffee boys.
" To these Coffee-houses men of all classes, who had either
leisure or money, resorted to spend both; and in them,
politics, play, scandal, criticism, and business, went on hand-
in-hand. The transition from Coffee-house to Club was easy.
TJius Tom's, a Coffee-house till 1764, in that year, by a
guinea subscription, among nearly seven hundred of the
nobility, foreign ministers, gentry, and geniuses of the age,
became the place of meeting for the subscribers exclusively.*
In the same way. White's and the Cocoa-tree changed their
character from Chocolate-house to Club. When once a
house had customers enough of standing and good repute,
and acquainted with each other, it was quite worth while —
considering the characters who, on the strength of assurance,
tolerable manners, and a laced coat, often got a footing in
these houses while they continued open to the public, to
purchase power of excluding all but subscribers."
Thus, the chief places of resort were at this period Coffee
and Chocolate-houses, in which some men almost lived, as
they do at the present day, at their Clubs. Whoever wished
to find a gentleman commonly asked, not where he resided,-
but which coffee-house he frequented. No decently attired
idler was excluded, provided he laid down his penny at the
Tjar ; but this he could seldom do without strugghng through
* We question whether the CofTee-house general business was entirely
£iven up immediately after the transition.
COFFEE-HOUSES OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 301
the crowd of beaux who fluttered round the lovely bar-maid.
F-.r- the proud nobleman or country squire was not to be
distinguished from the genteel thief and daring highwayman.
" Pray, sir," says Aimwell to Gibbet, in Farquhar's Beaux
Stratagem, " ha'n't I seen your face at Will's Coffee-house ?"
The robber's reply is : " Yes, Sir, and at White's too."
Three of Addison's papers in the Spectator, (Nos. 402, 481,
and 568,) are humorously descriptive of the Coffee-houses
of this period. No. 403 opens with the remark that " the
courts of two countries do not so much differ from one
another, as the Court and the City, in their pecuKar ways of
life and conversation. In short, the inhabitants of St.
James's, notwithstanding they live under the same laws, and
speak the same language, are a distinct people from those of
Cheapside, who are likewise removed from those of the
Temple on the one side, and those of Smithfield on the
other, by several climates and degrees in their way of think-
ing and conversing together." For this reason, the author
takes a ramble through London and Westminster, to gather
the opinions of his ingenious countrymen upon a current
report of the King of France's death. " I know the faces
of all the principal politicians within the bills of mortality ;
and as every Coffee-house has some particular statesman be-
longing to it, who is the mouth of the street where he lives,
I always take care to place myself near him, in order to
know his judgment on the present posture of affairs. And,
as I foresaw, the above report would produce a new face of
things in Europe, and many curious speculations in our
British Coffee-houses, I was very desirous to learn the
thoughts of our most eminent politicians on that occasion.
" That I might begin as near the fountain-head as possible^
I first of all called in at St. James's, where I found the whole
outward room in a buzz of politics ; the speculations were
but very indifferent towards the door, but grew finer as you
advanced to the upper end of the room, and were so much
improved by a knot of theorists, who sat in the inner room,
302 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
within the steams of the i coffee-pot, that I there heard the
whole Spanish monarchy disposed of, and all the line of
Bourbons provided for in less than a quarter of an hour.
" I afterwards called in at Giles's, where I saw a board
of French gentlemen sitting upon the life and death of their
grand monaique. Those among them. who had espoused
the Whig- interest very positively affirmed that he had
departed this life about a week since, and therefore, pro-
ceeded without any further delay to the release of their
friends in the galleys, and to their own re-establishment ;
but, finding they could not agree among themselves, I pro-
ceeded on' my intended progress.
" Upon my arrival at Jenny Man's I saw an alert young
fellow that cocked his hat upon a friend of his, who entered
just at the same time with myself, and accosted him after
the following manner : 'Well, Jack, the old prig is dead at
last. Sharp's the word. Now or never, boy. Up to the
walls of Paris, directly / with several other deep reflections
of the same nature.
" I met with very little variation in the politics between
Charing Cross and Covent Garden. And, upon my going
into Will's, I found their discourse was gone off, from the
death of the French King, to that of Monsieur Boileau,
Racine, Corneille, and several other poets, whom they
regretted on this occasion as persons who would have
obliged the world with very noble elegies on the death of so
great a prince,- and so eminent a patron of learning.
" At a Coffee-house near the Temple, I found a couple of
young -gentlemen engaged ■ very smartly in a dispute on the
succession to the Spanish monarchy. One of them seemed
to have. been retained- as advocate for the Duke of Anjou,
the other for his Imperial Majesty. They were both for
regarding the title to that kingdom by the statute laws of
England < but finding them going out of my depth, I.
pressed -forward: to Paul's Churchyard, where I listened with
great attention -to a learned man, who gave the company an
COFFEE-HOUSES OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 303
account of the deplorable -slate of France during the
minority of the deceased King.
" I then turned on my right hand into Fish-street, where
the ohief politician of that quarter, upon hearing the news,
(after having taken a pipe of tobacco, and ruminated for
some time,) 'If,' says he, ' the 'King of France is certainly
dead, we shall have plenty of mackerel this season : our
fishery will not be disturbed by privateers, as it has been for
these ten years past' He afterwards considered how the
death of this great man would affect our pilchards, and by
several other remarks infused a general joy into his whole
audietice.
" I afterwards entered a by-coffee-liouse that stood at the
upper end of a narrow lane, where I met with a conjuror
engaged very warmly with a laceman who was the great sup-
port of a neighbouring conventicle. The matter in debate
was whether the late French King was most like Augustus
Csesar, or Nero. The controversy was carried on with great
heat on both sides, and as each of them looked upon me
very frequently during the course of their debate, I was
"under sonie apprehension that they would -appeal tome, and
therefore laid down my penniy at the bar, and made the best
of my way to Cheapside.
"I here gazed upon the signs for some time before I
"fouiid one to rny purpose. The first object I met in' the
coffee-room was a person who expressed a great grief for the
death of the French King ; but upon his explaining himself,
I found his sorrow did not arise from the loss of the
monarch, but for his having sold out of the Bank about three
days before he heard the news of it. Upon which a haber-
dasher, who was the oracle of the coffee-house, and had his
circle of admirers aboiit him, called several to witness that
he had declared his opinion, above a week before, that the
French King was certainly dead ; to which he added, that
considering the late advices we had received from' France,
it was impossible that it could be otherwise. As he ivas laying
304 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
these together, and debating to his hearers with great
authority, there came a gentleman from Garraway's, who
told us that there were several letters from France just come
in, with advice that the King was in good health, and was
cone out a hunting the very morning the post came away j
upon which the haberdasher stole off his hat that hung upon
a wooden peg by him, and retired to his shop with great
confusion. This intelligence put a stop to my travels, which
I had prosecuted with so much satisfaction; not being a
little pleased to hear so many different opinions upon so
great an event, and to observe how naturally, upon such a
piece of news, every one is apt to consider it to his
particular interest and advantage."
Coffee-house Sharpers in 1776.
The following remarks by Sir John Fielding* upon the
dangerous classes to be found in our metropoUtan Coffee-
houses three-quarters of a century since, are described as
"necessary Cautions to all Strangers resorting thereto."
" A stranger or foreigner should particularly frequent the
Coffee-houses in London. These are very numerous in
every part of the town ; will give him the best insight into
the different characters of the people, and the justest notion
of the inhabitants in general ; of all the houses of public
resort these are the least dangerous. Yet, some of these
are not entirely free from sharpers. The deceivers of this
denomination are generally descended from families of some
repute, have had the groundwork of a genteel education,
and are capable of making a tolerable appearance. Having
been equally profuse of their own substance and character,
and learned, by having been undone, the ways of undoing,
they lie in wait for those who have more wealth and less
• " The Magistrate : Desaiption of London and Westminster,*
1776.
i^n--, - Zki'i 1
Simson's Three Tuns, Billingsgate, (i^w/? Dinners.
Copenhagen House, 1830.
DON SALTERas COFFEE-HOUSE. 305
knowledge of the town. By joining you in discourse, by
admiring what you say, by an ofRciousness to wait upon
you, and to assist you in anything you want to have or
know, they insinuate themselves into the company and ac-
quaintance of strangers, whom they watch every opportunity
of fleecing. And if one finds in you the least inclination to
cards, dice, the billiard table, bowling-green, or any other
sort of gaming, you are morally sure of being taken in. For
this set of gentry are adepts in all the arts of knavery and
tricking. If, therefore, you should observe a persouj with-
out any previous acquaintance, paying you extraordinary
marks of civility ; if he puts in for a share of your conversa-
tion with a pretended air of deference ; if he tenders his
assistance, courts your acquaintance, and would be suddenly
thought your friend, avoid him as a pest ; for these are the
usual baits by which the unwary are caught."
Don Saltero's Coffee-house.
Among the curiosities of Old Chelsea, almost as well-known
as its china, was the Coffee-house and Museum, No. 18,
Cheyne Walk, opened by a barber, named Salter, in 1695.
Sir Hans Sloane contributed some of the refuse gimcracks
of his own collection ; and Vice-Admiral Munden, who had
been long on the coast of Spain, where he had acquired a
a fondness for Spanish titles, named the keeper of the house
Don Salter 0, and his Coffee-house and Museum, Don
Saltero's.
The place, however, would, in all probability, have en-
joyed little beyond its local fame, had not Sir Richard Steele
immortalized the Don and Don Saltero's in The Tatler,
No. 34, June 28, 1700 ; wherein he tells us of the necessity
of travelling to know the world by his journey for fresh air,
no further than the village of Chelsea, of which he fancied
that he could give an immediate description, from the five
fields, where the robbers lie in wait, to the Coffee-house,
X
30(5 -■ CLUB LIFE OI' LONDON.
where the literati sit in council. But he found, evat,i in La-
place so neaf town as this, there were.enorniities and persons
of eminence, whom he before knew nothing of.
The Coffeerhouse ^vas almost absorbed by the Museum.
"When I came into the Coffee-house," says Steele, " I had
not time to salute the company, before my eyes were di-
verted by ten thousand gimcracKs. round the room, and on
the ceiling. When my first astonishment was over, comes
to me a sage of thin and meagre countenance, which aspect
made me doubt whether reading or fretting had made it so
philosophic ; but I very soon perceived him to be of that
sort which the ancients call ' gingivistee,' in our language
' tooth-drawers.' I immediately had a respect for the man;-
for these practical philosophers go upon a very practical
hypothesis, not to cure, but to take away the part affected.
My love of mankind made me very benevolent to Mr;
Salter, for such is the name of this eminent barber and
antiquary."
The Don was famous for his punch and his skill on the
fiddle ; he also drew teeth, and \\T:ote verses ; he described
his museum in several stanzas, one of which is —
Monsters of all sorts are seen :
Strange things in nature as they grew so ;
Some relicks of the Sheba Queefn,
And fragments of the fani'd Bob Crusoe.
Steele then plunges into a deep thought why barbers
should go further in hitting the ridiculous than any other
set of men ; and maintains that Don Saltero is descended
in a right line, not from John Tradescant, as he himself
asserts, but from the memorable companion of the Knights
of Mancha. Steele then certifies that all the worthy citizens
who travel to see the Don's rarities, his double-barrelled
pistols, targets, coats of mail, his sclopeta, and sword of
Toledo, were left to his ancestor by the said Don Quixote,
and by his ancestor to all his progeny down to Saltero.
Though Steele thus goes far in favotir of Don Saltero's great
JDON SALTERffS COFFEE-HOUSE. 307,
merit; he otyects to his imposing several names (without his
licence) on the collection he has made, to the abuse: of the
good people of England ; one of which is particularly -calcu-
lated to deceiw religious persons, to the greait scaqdalof
the well-disposed, '-.and may introduce heterodox opinions.
[Among the curiosities presented by Admiral Munden was
a cofHn, containing the body or relics of a Spanish saint,
who had wrought miracles.] " He shows you a straw hat;
which," says Steele, "I know to be made by Madge Peskad,
within three miles of Bedford ; and tells you ' It is Pontius
Pilate's wife's chambermaid's sister's hat.' To my knowledge
of this very hat, it may be added that the covering of straw
was never used among the Jews, since it -was demanded of
them, to make bricks without it. Therefore, this is nothing
but, under the specious pretence of learning and antiquities,
to impose upon the world. There are other things vhich I
cannot tolerate ariong his rarities, as, the china figure of the
lady in the.glassrcase;, the Italian engine, for the imprison-
ment of those who go abroad with it ; both ' of which I
hereby order to be taken down, or else he may expect to
have his letters patent for making punch superseded; be de-
barred wearing his muff next winter, or ever coming to
London without his wife." Babillard says that Salter had
an old grey muff, and that, by wearing it up to his nose, he
was distinguishable at the distance of a quarter of a mile.
His wife was none of the best, being much addicted to
scolding ; and Salter, who liked his glass, if he could make
a trip to London by himself, was in no haste to return.
Don Saltero's proved very attractive as an exhibition, and
drew crowds to the Coffee-house. A catalogue was pub^
lished, of which were printed more than forty editions.
Smollett, the novelist, was among the donors. The cata-
logue, in 1760, comprehended the following rarities: —
Tigers' tusks ; the Pope's candle ; the skeleton of a Guinea-
pig ; a fly-cap monkey j a piece of the true Cross ; the Four
Evangehsts' heads cut on a cherry-stone; the King of
X 2
3o8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
Morocco's tobacco-pipe ; Mary Queen of Scots' pincushion;
Queen Elizabeth's prayer-book ; a pair of Nun's stockings ;
Job's ears, which grew on a tree ; a frog in a tobacco-stopper;
and five hundred more odd relics ! The Don had a rival,
as appears by "A Catalogue of the Rarities to be seen at
Adams's, at the Royal Swan, in Kingsland-road, leading
from Shoreditch Church, 1756." Mr. Adams exhibited, for
the entertainment of the curious, " Miss Jenny Cameron's
shoes ; Adam's eldest daughter's hat ; the heart of the
famous Bess Adams, that was hanged at Tyburn with
Lawyer Carr, January 18, 1736-7 ; Sir Walter Raleigh's
tobacco-pipe ; Vicar of Bray's clogs ; engine to shell green
peas with ; teeth that grew in a fish's belly ; Black Jack's
ribs ; the very comb that Abraham combed his son Isaac
and Jacob's head with ; Wat Tyler's spurs ; rope that cured
Captain Lowry of the head-ach, ear-ach, tooth-ach, and
belly-ach ; Adam's key of the fore and back door of the
Garden of Eden, &c., &C;" These are only a few out of
five hundred others equally marvellous.
The Don, in 1723, issued a curious rhyming advertise-
ment of his Curiosities, dated " Chelsea Knackatory," and
in one line he calls it " My Museum Coffee-house."
In Dr. Franklin's "Life" we read: — "Some gentlemen from
the country went by water to see the College, and Don
Saltero's Curiosities, at Chelsea." They were shown in the
coffee-room till August, 1799, when the collection was mostly
' sold or dispersed ; a few gimcracks were left until about
1825, when we were informed on the premises, they were
thrown away ! The house is now a tavern, with the sign of
" The Don Saltero's Coffee-house."
The success of Don Saltero, in attracting visitors to his
coffee-house, induced the proprietor of the Chelsea Bun-house
to make a similar collection of rarities, to attract customers
for the buns; and to some extent it was successful.
309
Saloop-houses.
What was, in our time, occasionally sold at stalls in the
streets of London, with this name, was a decoction of
sassafras ; but it was originally made from Salep, the roots
of Orchis mascula, a common plant of our meadows, the
tubers of which, being cleaned and peeled, are lightly
browned in an oven. Salep was much recommended in the
last century by Dr. Percival, who stated that salep had the
property of concealing the taste of salt water, which pro-
perty it was thought might be turned to account in long sea-
voyages. The root has been considered as containing the
largest portion of nutritious matter in the smallest space ;
and when boiled, it was much used in this country before
the introduction of tea and cofifee, and their greatly reduced
prices. Salep is now almost entirely disused in Great
Britain ; but we remember many saloop-stalls in our streets.
We believe the last house in which it was sold, to have been
Read's Coffee-house, in Fleet-street The landlord of the
noted Mug-house, in Salisbury-square, was one Read. (See
p. 44.)
The Smyrna Coffee-house,
In Pall Mall, was, in the reign of Queen Anne, famous
for " that cluster of wise-heads " found sitting every evening,
from the left side of the fire to the door. The following
announcement in the Tatler, No. 78, is amusing : " This is
to give notice to all ingenious gentlemen in and about the
cities of London and Westminster, who have a mind to be
instructed in the noble sciences of music, poetry, and
politics, that they repair to the Smyrna Coffee-house, in
Pall Mall, betwixt the hours of eight and ten at night, where
they may be instructed gratis, with elaborate essays by word
of mouth," on all or any of the above-mentioned arts. The
3IO CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
disciples are to prepare their bodies with three dishes of
bohea, and to purge their brains with two pinches of snuff.
If any young student gives indication of parts, by listening
attentively, or asking a pertinent question, one of the pro-
fessors shall distinguish him, by taking snufif out of his box
in the presence of the whole audience.
" N.B.— The seat of learning is now removed from the
corner of the chimney on the left hand towards the window,
to the round table in the middle of the floor over against the
fire ; a revolution much lamented by the porters and chair-
men, who were much edified through a pane of glass that
remained broken all the last summer."
Prior and Swift were much together at the' Smyrna : we
read of their sitting there two hours, " receiving acquaint-
ance ;" and one entry of Swift's tells us that he walked a
little in the Park till Prior made him go with him to the
Smyrna Coffee-house. It seemed to be the place to talk
politics; but there is a more agreeable 'record of it in
association with our " Poet of the Year,'' thus given by
Cunningham : " In the printed copy of Thomson's proposals
for publishing, by subscription, the Four Seasons, with a
Hymn on their succession, the following note is appended :
' Subscriptions now taken in by the author, at the Smyrna
Coffee-house, Pall Mall.'"* We find the 'Smyrna in a list of
Coffee-houses in 1810.
St. James's Coffee-house.
This was the famous Whig Coffee-house from the time of
Queen Anne till late in the reign of George III. It was tho
last house but one on the south-west comer of St. James's-
* The Dane Coifee-house, between the Upper and. Lower Malls,
Hammersmith, was frequented by Thomson, who wrote here a part of
his "Winter." On the Terrace resided, for many years, Arthur Murphy,
and Loutherbourg, the painter. The latter died there, in 1812.
ST. yAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 311
Street, and is thus mentioned in No. i of the Tatler :
"Foreign and Domestic News you will have from St.
James's Coffee-house." It occurs also in the passage quoted
at page 301, from the Spectator. The St. James's was much
frequented by Swift ; letters- for him were left here. In Jiis
Journal to Stella he says: " I met Mr. Harley, and he asked
me how long I had learnt the trick of writing to myself?
He had seen your letter through the glass case at the
Coffee-house, and would swear it was my hand." The
letters from Stella were enclosed under cover to Addison.
Elliot, who kept, the coffee-house, was, on occasions,
placed on a friendly footing with his guests. Swift, in his
Journal to Stella, Nov. 19, 1710, records an odd instance of
this familiarity : " This evening I christened our coffee-man
Elliot's child ; when the rogue had a most noble supper, and
Steele and I sat amongst^ some scurvy company over a bowl
of punch."
In the first advertisement of Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
tagu's " Town Eclogues," they are stated to have been read
over at the St. James's Coffee-house, when they were
considered by the general voice to be productions of a
Lady of Quality. From the proximity of the house to St.
James's Palace, it was much frequented by . the Guards ;
and we read of its being no uncommon circumstance to
see Dr. Joseph Warton at breakfast in the St. James's
Coffee-house, surrounded by offxers of the Guards, who
listened with the utmost attention and pleasure to his
remarks.
To show the order and regularity observed at the St.
James's, we may quote the following advertisement,
appended to the Tatter, No. 25 : — " To prevent all mis-
takes that may happen among gentlemen of the other end
of the town, who come but once a week to St. James's
Coffee-house, either by miscalling the servants^ or requiring
such things from them as are not properly within their respec-
tive provinces ; this is to give notice that Kidney, keeper of
312 CLUB LJi'Ji ux' i^uivjjuiv.
the book-debts of the outlying customers, and observer of
those who go oft without paying, having resigned that
employment, is succeeded by John Sowton ; to whose place
of enterer of messages and first cofiee-grinder, William Bird
is promoted ; and Samuel Burdock comes as shoe-cleaner in
the room of the said Bird."
But the St. James's is more memorable as the house
where originated Goldsmith's celebrated poem, " Retalia-
tion." The poet belonged to a temporary association of
men of talent, some of them members of the Club, who
dined together occasionally here. At these dinners he was
generally the last to arrive. On one occasion, when he was
later than usual, a whim seized the company to write
epitaphs on him as " the late Dr. Goldsmith," and several
were thrown off in a playful vein. The only one extant was
written by Garrick, and has been preserved, very probably,
by its pungency : —
Here lies poet Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll ;
He wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll.
Goldsmith did not relish the sarcasm, especially coming
from such a quarter ; and, by way of retaliation, he produced
the famous poem, of which Cumberland has left a very
interesting account, but which Mr. Forster, in his " Life of
Goldsmith,'' states to be " pure romance." The poem itself,
however, with what was prefixed to it when published,
sufficiently explains its own origin. What had formerly
been abrupt and strange in Goldsmith's manners, had now
so visibly increased, as to Ijecome matter of increased sport
to such as were ignorant of its cause ; and a proposition
made .it one of the dinners, when he was absent, to write a
series of epitaphs upon him (his "country dialect" and his
awkward person) was agreed to, and put in practice by several
of the guests. The active aggressors appear to have been
Garrick, Doctor Bernard, Richard Burke, and Caleb White-
foord. Cumberland says he, too, wrote an epitaph ; but it
was complimentary and grave, and hence the grateful return
ST. JAMESS COFFEE-HOUSE. 313
he received. Mr. Forster considers Garrick's epitaph to
indicate the tone of all. This, with the rest, was read to
Goldsmith when he next appeared at the St. James's Coffee-
house, where Cumberland, however, says he never again
met his friends. But " the Doctor was called on for Retali-
ation," says the friend who published the poem with that
name, " and at their next meeting produced the following,
which, I think, adds one leaf to his immortal wreath."
" ' Retaliation,' " says Sir Walter Scott, " had the effect of
placing the author on a more equal footing with his Society
than he had ever before assumed."
Cumberland's account differs from the version formerly
received, which intimates that the epitaphs were written be-
fore Goldsmith arrived : whereas the pun, " the late Dr.
Goldsmith," appears to have suggested the writing of the
epitaphs. In the " Retaliation," Goldsmith has not spared the
characters and failings of his associates, but has drawn them
with satire, at once pungent and good-humoured. Garrick
is smartly chastised ; Burke, the Dinner-bell of the House
of Commons, is not let off ; and of all the more distinguished
names of the Club, Thomson, Cumberland, and Reynolds
alone escape the lash of the satirist. The former is not
mentioned, and the two latter are even dismissed with uri-
qualified and affectionate applause.
Still, we quote Cumberland's account of the " Retaliation,''
which is very amusing from the closely circumstantial man-
ner in which the incidents are narrated, although they have
so little relationship to truth :— " It was upon a proposal
started by Edmund Burke, that a party of friends who had
dined together at Sir. Joshua Reynolds's and my house,
should meet at the St. James's Coffee-house, which accord-
ingly took place, and was repeated occasionally with much
festivity and good fellowship. Dr. Bernard, Dean of Derry ;
a very amiable and old friend of mine, Dr. Douglas, since
Bishop of Salisbury ; Johnson, David Garrick, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund and Richard Burke,
31,4 QLtfB LIFE OF LONDON.
Hicjtey, with two. or three others, constituted ovir party. At
one of these meetings an idea was sUggftsted of extemporary
epitaphs upon the parties present : pen and ink were called
for, and Garrick, off-hand, wrote an epitaph with a. good deal
of humour, upon poor' Goldsmith, who was the first in jest,
as he proved to be in reality, that we committed to. the grave.
The Dean also gave him an epitaph, and Sir Joshua illumi-
nated the Dean's verses with a sketch of his bust in" peii and
ink, inimitably caricatured. Neither Johnson nor Burke
wrote anything, and when , I perceived that Oliver was
rather sore, and seemed to watch me with that kind of
attention . which indicated his expectation of something in
the .same kind of burlesque with theirs ; I thought it time to
press the Joke nofurther, and wrote a few couplets at a side-
table, which, when Lhad finished, and was called upon by
the company to exhibit, -Goldsmith, with mucli agitation,
besought me to spare him ; and I was about to tear them,
when Johnson wrested them out of my hand, and in a loud
voice read them at the table. I have now lost recollection
of them, and, in fact, they were little worth remembering ;
but as they were serious and complimentary, the effect upon
Goldsmith was the more pleasing, for being so entirely un-
expected. The concluding line, which was tlie only one I
can call to mind, was : —
All moum the poet, I lament the man.
This I recollect, because he repeated it several times,, and
seemed much gratified by it. At our next meeting he pro-
duced his epitaphs, as they- stand in the little posthumous
poem above mentioned, and this was the last time he ever
enjoyed the company of his friends."*
Mr. Cunningham tells us that the St. James's was closed
about 1806 ; and a large pile of building looking down Pall
Mall, erected on its site.
* " Cumberland's Memoirs," vol. i.
THE BRITISH COFSEE-HOUSE. 315
The globular oil-lamp was first exhibited by its inventor,
Mitihael Cole, at the door of the St. James's Coffee-house,
in 1709; in the patent he obtained, it is mentioned as " a
new kind of iight."
The British Coffee-house,
In Cockspur-street, " long a house of call for Scotchmen,"
has been fortunate in Its landladies. In 1759, it was kept
by the sister of Bishop Douglas, so well known foi' his works
against Lauder anii Bower, which may explain its Scottish
fame, at another period it was kept ' by Mrs. Anderson,
described in Mackenzie's " Life of Home " as " a woman of
uncommon talents, and the most agreeable conversation."*
The British figures' in a political faction of 1750, at which
.date Walpole writes to "Sir Horace Mann: "The Argyll
carried all the Scotch against the turnpike ; they were will-
ing to be carried,, for the Duke of Bedford, in case it should
have come into the Lords, had writ to the sixteen Peers,
to solicit their votes ; but with so httle difference, that he
enclosed all the letters under one cover directed to the British
Coffee-house."
Will's Coffee-house, t
Will's, the predecessor of Button's, and even more cele-
brated than that Coffee-house, was kept by William Urwin, and
was the house on the north side of Russell-street, at the end
of Bow-street — the corner house — now occupied as a ham and
beef shop, and num,bered twentyrthree. " It was Dryden
* " Cunninghajn's Walpole," vol. ii, p. 196, note.
+ Will's Coffee-house first had the title of the Red Cow, then of the
Rose, and, we.believe, is the same house alluded to in the pleasant story
in the second number of the Tatter: —
''Supper and friends expect we at the Rose."
The Rose, however, was a common sig^ for houses of public entertain-
ment.
3i6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
who made Will's Coffee-house the great resort of the wits of
his time." {Pope and Spence.) The room in which the poet
was accustomed to sit was on the first floor ; and his place
was the place of honour by fire-side in the winter ; and at
the corner of the balcony, looking over the street, in fine
weather ; he called the two places his winter and his
summer seat. This was called the dining-room floor in the
last century. The company did not sit in boxes as subse-
quently, but at various tables which were dispersed through
the room. Smoking was permitted in the public room : it
was then, so much in vogue that it does not seem to have
been considered a nuisance. Here, as in other similar
places of meeting, the visitors divided themselves into
parties ; and we are told by Ward, that the young beaux
and wits, who seldom approached the principal table,
thought it a great honour to have a pinch out of Dryden's
snuff-box.
Dean Lockier has left this life-like picture of his interview
with the presiding genius at Will's : — " I was about seventeen
when I first came up to town," says the Dean, " an odd-
looking boy, with short rough hair, and that sort of awkward-
ness which one always brings up at first out of the country
vdth one. However, in spite of my bashfulness and
appearance, I used, now and then, to thrust myself into
Will's, to have the pleasure of seeing the most celebrated
wits of that time, who then resorted thither. The second
time that ever I was there, Mr. Dryden was speaking of his
own things, as he frequently did, especially of such as had
been lately pubhshed. ' If anything of mine is good,' says
he, ' 'tis " Mac-Flecno •" and I value myself the more upon it,
because it is the first piece of ridicule written in heroics.'
On hearing this I plucked up my spirit so far as to say, in a
voice but just loud enough to be heard, ' that " Mac-FIecno "
was a very fine poem, but that I had not imagined it to be
the first that was ever writ that way.' On this, Dryden
turned short upon me, as surprised at my interposing ; asked
JVILVS COFFEE-HOUSE, 317
me how long ' I had been a dealer in poetry ;' and added,
with a smile, ' Pray, Sir, what is it that you did imagine to
have been writ so before ?' — I named Boileau's ' Lutrin ' and
Tassoni's ' Secchia Rapita,' which I had read, and knew
Dryden had borrowed some strokes from each. ' 'Tis true,'
said Dryden, ' I had forgot them.' A little after, Dryden
went out, and in going, spoke to me again, and desired me
to come and see him the next day. I was highly delighted
with the invitation ; went to see him accordingly ; and was
well acquainted with him after, as long as he lived."
Will's Coffee-house was the open market for libels and
lampoons, the latter named from the established burden
formerly sung to them : —
Lampone, lampone, camerada lampone.
Thei E was a drunken fellow, named Julian, who was a
characterless frequenter of Will's, and Sir Walter Scott has
given this account of him and his vocation :—
" Upon the general practice of writing lampoons, and the
necessity of finding some mode of dispersing them, which
should diffuse the scandal widely while the authors remained
concealed, was founded the self-erected office of Julian,
Secretary, as he calls himself, to the Muses. This person
attended Will's, the Wits' Coffee-house, as it was called ;
and dispersed among the crowds who frequented that place
of gay resort copies of the lampoons which had been
privately communicated to him by their authors. ' He is
described,' says Mr. Malone, 'as a very drunken fellow, and
at one time was confined for a libel.' Several satires were
written, in the form of addresses to him as well as the
following. There is one among the "State Poems" be-
ginning-
Julian, in verse, to ease thy wants I write,
Not moved by envy, malice, or by spite,
Or pleased with the empty names of wit and sense.
But merely to supply thy want of pence :
3l8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDOM
This did inspire my muse, wlieu out at hod-.
She saw her needy secretary reel ; ■
Grieved that a man, so useful to the age,
Should foot it in so mean an equipage ;
A crying scandal, that the fees of sense
Should not be able to support the expense
Of a poor scribe, who never thought of wants, -
When able- to procure a cup of Nantz.
Another, called a ' Consoling Epistle to Julian,' is said to
have been written by the Duke of Buckingham.
" From a passage in one of the ' Letters from the Dead to
the Living,' we learn, that after Julian's death, and the
madness of his successor, called Summerton, lampoon felt a
sensible decay ; and there was no more that brisk spirit of
verse, that used to watch the follies and vices of the men and
women of figure, that they could not start new ones faster
than lampoons exposed them."
How these lampoons were concocted we gather from
Bays, in the " Hind and the Panther transversed :" — " 'Tis
a trifle hardly worth owning; I was 'tother-day at Will's,
throwing out something of that nature ; and, i' gad, the hint
was taken, and out came that pictute ; indeed, the poor
fellow was so civil as to present me with a dozen of 'em for
my friends ; I think I have here one in my pocket. . . . Ay,
ay, I can do it if I list, tho' you must not think I have been
so dull as to mind these things myself; but 'tis the advan-
tage of our Coffee-house, that from their talk, one may write
a very good polemical discourse, without ever troubling one's
head with the books of controversy."
Tom Brown describes "a Wit and a Beau set up with
little or no expense. A pair of red stockings and a sword-
knot set up one, and peeping once a day in at Will's, and
two or three second-hand sayings, the other.''
Pepys, one night, going to fetch home his wife, stopped
in Covent Garden, at the Great Coffee-house there, as he
called Will's, where he never was before ; "Where," he adds,
"DrydeD; the poet (I knew at Cambridge), and all the
WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE. ico
Wits of the town, and Han-is the player, and Mr. Hoole of
our College. And had 1 had tmie then,'or could at other
times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive, is
very witty and pleasant discourse. But! could not tarry,
and, as it was late, they were all ready to go away."
Addison passed each day alike, and much in the manner
that Dryden did. Dryden eniployed his mornings in
v^riting, dined en fainille, and then went to Will's, " only he
came home earlier o' nights.''
Pope, when very young, was impressed with such venera-
tion for Dryden, that he persuaded some friends to take him
to Will's Cofifee-house, and was delighted that he could say
that he had seen Dryden, Sir Charles Wogan, too, brought
up Pope from the Forest of Windsor, to dress d /a mode, and
introduce at Will's Coffee-house. Pope afterwards described
Dryden as " a plump man with a down look, and not very
conversible ;" and Cibber could tell no more " but that he
remembered him a decent old man, arbiter of critical
disputes at Will's.'' Prior sings of —
the younger Stiles,
Whom Dryden pedagogues at Will's !
Most of the hostile criticisms on bis x'lays, which Dryden
has noticed in his various Prefaces, appear to have been
made at his favourite haunt. Will's Coffee-house.
Dryden is generally said to have, been returning from
Will's to his house in Gerard-street, when he was cudgelled
in Rose-street by three persons hired for the purpose by
Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, in the winter of 1679. The
assault, or ",the Rose-alley Ambuscade," certainly took
place ; but it is not so certain that Dryden was on his way
from Will's, and he then lived in Long-acre, not Gerard-
street.
It is worthy of remark that Swift was accustomed to
speak disparagingly of Will's, as in his "Rhapsody on
Poetry :"—
32« CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Be sure at Will's the following day
Lie snug, and hear what critics say ;
And if you find the general vogue
Pronounces you a stupid rogue,
Damns all your thoughts as low and little ;
Sit still, and swallow down your spittle.
Swift thought little of the frequenters of Will's : he used
to say, " the worst conversation he ever heard in his life was
at Will's Coffee-house, where the wits (as they were called)
used formerly to assemble ; that is to say, five or six men,
who had writ plays or at least prologues, or had a share in a
miscellany, came thither, and entertained one another with
their trifling composures, in so important an air as if they
had been the noblest efforts of human nature, or that the fate
of kingdoms depended on them.
In the first number of the Tatler, Poetry is promised
under the article of Will's Coffee-house. The place, how-
ever, changed after Dryden's time : " you used to see songs,
epigrams, and satires in the hands of every man you met ;
you have now only a pack of cards; and instead of the cavils
about the turn of the expression, the elegance of the style,
and the like, the learned now dispute only about the truth
of the game." " In old times, we used to sit upon a play
here, after it was acted, but now the entertainment's turned
another way."
The Spectator is sometimes seen " thrusting his head into
a round of politicians at Will's, and listening with great
attention to the narratives that are made in these little circular
audiences." Then, we have as an instance of no one mem-
ber of human society but that would have some little pre-
tension for some degree in it, " like him who came to Will's
Coffee-house upon the merit of having writ a posie of a ring."
And, " Robin, the porter who waits at Will's, is the best man
in town for carrying a billet : the fellow has a thin body, swift
step, demure looks, sufficient sense, and knows the town."*
The Spectator, No. 398.
WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 321
After Dryden's death, in 1701, Will's continued for about
ten years to be still the Wits' Coffee-house, as we see by
Ned Ward's account, and by that in the " Journey through
England" in 1722.
Pope entered with keen relish into society, and courted
the correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics.
Among his early friends was Mr. Henry Cromwell, one of
the cousinry of the Protector's family : he was a bachelor,
and spent most of his time in London ; he had some pre-
tensions to scholarship and literature, having translated
several of Ovid's Elegies, for Tonson's Miscellany. With
Wycherley, Gay, Dennis, the popular actors and actresses of
the day, and with all the frequenters of Will's, Cromwell was
familiar. He had done more than take a pinch out of
Dryden's snuff-box, which was a point of high ambition and
honour at Will's ; he had quarrelled with him about a frail
poetess, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, whom Dryden had chris-
tened Corinna, and who was also known as Sappho. Gay
characterized this literary and eccentric beau as
Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches ;
it being his custom to carry his hat in his hand when walking
with ladies. What with ladies and literature, rehearsals and
reviews, and critical attention to the quality of his coffee and
Brazil snuff, Henry Cromwell's time was fully occupied in
town. Cromwell was a dangerous acquaintance for Pope at
the age of sixteen or seventeen, but he was a very agreeable
one. Most of Pope's letters to his friend are addressed to
him at the Blue Ball, in Great Wild-street, near Drury-lane,
and others to " Widow Hambledon's Coffee-house, at the
end of Princes-street, near Drury-lane, London." Cromwell
made one visit to Binfield ; on his return to London, Pope
wrote to him, " referring to the ladies in particular," and to
his favourite coffee :
As long as Mocha's happy tree shall grow,
While berries crackle, or while mills shall go ;
Y
322 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
While smoking streams from silver spouts shall glide,
Or China's earth receive the sable tide,
While Coffee shall to British nymplis be dear.
While fragrant steams the bended head shall cheer.
Or grateful bitters shall delight the taste.
So long her honours, name, and praise shall last.
Even at this early period Pope seems to have relied for
relief from headache to the steam of coffee, which he inhaled
for this purpose throughout the whole of his life.*
The Taverns and Coffee-houses supplied the place of the
Clubs we have since seen established. Although no ex-
clusive subscription belonged to any of these, we find by
the account which CoUey Cibber gives of his first visit to
Will's, in Covent Garden, that it required an introduction to
this Society not to be considered as an impertinent intruder.
There the veteran Dryden had long presided over all the
acknowledged wits and poets of the day, and those who
had the pretension to be reckoned among them. The poli-
ticians assembled at the St. James's Coffee-house, from
whence all the articles of political news in the first Tatlers
are dated. The learned frequented the Grecian Coffee-
house in Devereux-court. Locket's, in Gerard-street, Soho,
and Pontac's, were the fashionable taverns where the young
and gay met to dine : and White's and other chocolate
houses seem to have been the resort of the same company
in the morning. Three o'clock, or at latest four, was the
dining-hour of the most fashionable persons in London, for
in the country no such late hours had been adopted. In
London, therefore, soon after six, the men began to assemble
at the coffee-house they frequented if they were not set-
ting in for hard drinking, which seems to have been much
less indulged in private houses than in taverns. The ladies
made visits to one another, which it must be owned was a
much less waste of time when considered as an amusement
for the evening, than now, as being a morning occupation.
* Camithers : Life of Pope.
323
Button's Coffee-house.
Will's was the great resort for the wits of Dryd.en's time,
after whose death it was transferred to Button's. Pope de-
scribes the houses as " opposite each other, in Russell-street,
Covent Garden," where Addison established Daniel Button,
in a new house, about 1712 ; and his fame, after the pro-
duction of Cato, drew many of the Whigs thither. Button
had been servant to the Countess of Warwick. The house
is more correctly described as " over against Tom's, near
the middle of the south side of the street."
Addison was the great patron of Button's; but it is said
that when he suffered any vexation from his , Countess, he
withdrew the company from Button's house. His chief
companions, before he married Lady Warwick, were Steele,
Budgell, Philips, Carey, Davenant, and Colonel Brett. He
used to breakfast with one or other of them in St.
James's-place, dine at taverns with them, then to Button's,
and then to some tavern again, for supper in the evening ;
and tliis was the usual round of his life, as Pope tells us, in
" Spence's Anecdotes /' where Pope also says : " Addison
usually studied all the morning, then met his party at
Button's, dined there, and stayed five or six hours ; and
sometimes far into the night. I was of the company for
about a year, but found it too much for me : it hurt my
health, and so I quitted it." Again : "There had been a
coldness between me and Mr. Addison for some time, and w?^
had not been in company together for a good while any-
where but at Button's Coffee-house, where I used to see him
almost every day."
Here Pope is reported to have said of Patrick, the lexico-
grapher, that " a dictionary-maker might know the meaning
of one word, but not of two put together."
Button's was the receiving-house for contributions to The
Guardian, for which purpose was put up a lion's head letter-
Y 2
324 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
box, in imitation of the celebrated lion at Venice, as humo-
rously announced. Thus : —
"N.B. — Mr. Ironside has, within five weeks last past,
muzzled three lions, gorged five, and killed one. On Mon-
day next the skin of the dead one will be hung up, in
terrorem, at Button's Coffee-house, over against Tom's in
Covent Garden."*
" Button's Coffee-house, —
" Mr. Ironside, I have observed that this day you make
mention of Will's Coffee-house, as a place where people are
too polite to hold a man in discourse by the button. Every-
body knows your honour frequents this house, therefore they
will take an advantage against me, and say if my company was
as civil as that at Will's. You would say so. Therefore pray
your honour do not be afraid of doing me justice, because
people would think it may be a conceit below you on this
occasion to name the name of your humble servant, Daniel
Button. — The young poets are in the back room, and take
-their places as you directed."!
" I intend to publish once every week the roarings of
the Lion, and hope to make him roar so loud as to be heard
over all the British nation.
"I have, I know not how, been drawn into tattle of
-myself, more majorum, almost the length of a whole Guar-
dian. I shall therefore fill up the remaining part of it with
what still relates to my own person, and my correspondents.
Now I would have them all know that on the 20th instant,
it is my intention to erect a Lion's Head, in imitation of
those I have described in Venice, through which all the
■private commonwealth is said to pass. This head is to open
a most wide and voracious mouth, which shall take in such
letters and ^papers as are conveyed to me by my correspon-
dents, it being my resolution to have a particular regard to
all such matters as come to my hands though the mouth of
* The Guardian, No. 71. t Ibid., No. %<,.
BUTTON'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 325
the Lion. There will be under it a box, of which the key
will be in my own custody, to receive such papers as are
dropped into it. Whatever the Lion swallows I shall digest
for the use of the publick. This head requires some time
to finish, the workmen being resolved to give it several
masterly touches, and to represent it as ravenous as possible.
It will be set up in Button's Coffee-house, in Covent Garden,
who is directed to shew the way to the Lion's Head, and to
instruct any- young author how to convey his works into the
mouth of it with safety and secrecy."*
" I think myself obliged to acquaint the publick, tnat the
Lion's Head, of which I advertised them about a fortnight
ago, is now erected at Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-
street, Covent Garden, where it opens its mouth at all hours
for the reception of such intelligence as shall be thrown
into it. It is reckoned an excellent piece of workmanship,
and was designed by a great hand in imitation of the antique
Egyptian lion, the face of it being compounded out of that
of a lion and a wizard. The features are strong and well
furrowed. The whiskers are admired by all that have seen
them. It is planted on the western side of the Coffee-house,
holding its paws under the chin, upon a box, which con-
tains everything that he swallows. He is, indeed, a proper
emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and paws."t
" Being obliged, at present, to attend a particular affair of
my own, I do empower my printer to look into the arcana
of the Lion, and select out of them such as may be of publick
utility; and Mr. Button is hereby authorized and commanded
to give my said printer free ingress and egress to the lion,
without any hindrance, let, or molestation whatsoever, until
such time as he shall receive orders to the contrary. And,
for so doing, this shall be his warrant.''^:
" My Lion, whose jaws are at all times open to intelli-
* Tlie Guardum, No. 93. + Ibid., No. 114.
t Ibid., No. 142.
326 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
gence, informs me that there are a few enormous weapons
still in being; but that they are to be* aiet.;with only. in
gaming-houses and some of the obscuri^ttfeatS of lovers,
in and about DruryJane aiid Covent ^^&t&:Q!i ' i^~
This memorable K^'-s H^ad w^-S^SraiJly «?ell carved :
through the mouth the-'^tSiiS^Vs^^^opjed into a till at
Button's; and beneath were'iSIStiBed-th'ffse tWCP lines from
Martial: — ~ • c't^:^ *•■ - '» - ,,-
Cervantur magni? isti Ceryicibus ungues ^
Non nisi delicti pascitur ille fer|.
The head was designed by Hogarth, and is etched in
Ireland's " Illustrations." Lord Chesterfield is said to have
once offered for the Head fifty guineas. From Button's it
was removed to the Shakspeare's Head Tavern, under the
Piazza, kept by a person named Tomkyns; and in 1751,
was, for a short time, placed in the Bedford Coffee-house
immediately adjoining the Shakspeare, and there employed
as a letter-box by Dr. John Hill, for his Inspector. In 1769,
Tomkyns was succeeded by his waiter, Campbell, as pro-
prietor of the tavern and lion's head, and by him the latter
was retained until Nov. 8, 1804, when it was purchased by
Mr. Charles Richardson, of Richardson's Hotel, for 17/. loj.,
who also possessed the original sign of the Shakspeare's
Head. Afte'r Mr. Richardson's death in 1827, the Lion's
Head devolved to his son, of whom it was bought by the
Duke of Bedford, and deposited at Woburn Abbey, where
it still remains.
Pope was subjected to much annoyance and insult at
Button's. Sir Samuel Garth wrote to Gay, that everybody
was pleased with Pope's Translation, "but a few at Button's;"
to which Gay adds, to Pope, " I am confirmed that at
Button's your character is made very free with, as to morals,
etc."
Cibber, in a letter to Pope, says : — " When you used to
* The Guardian, No. 171.
BU7T0N'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 327
pass your hours at Button's, you were even there remark-
able for your satirical itch of provocation ; scarce was there
a gentleman of any pretension to wit, whom your unguarded
temper had not fallen upon in some biting epigram, among
which you once caught a pastoral Tartar, whose resentment,
that your punishment might be proportionate to the smart
of your poetry, had stuck up a birchen rod in the room, to
be ready whenever you might come within reach, of it ; and
at this rate you writ and rallied and writ on, till you rhymed
yourself quite out of the coffee-house.'' The "pastoral
Tartar" was Ambrose Philips, who, says Johnson, "hung up a
rod at Button's, with which he threatened to chastise Pope."
Pope, in a letter to Craggs, thus explains the affair : —
" Mr. Philips did express himself with much indignation
against me one evening at Button's Coffee-house, (as I was
told,) saying that I was entered into a cabal with Dean
Swift and others, to write against the Whig interest, and in
particular to undermine his own reputation and that of his
friends, Steele and Addison ; but Mr. Philips never opened
his lips to my face, on this or any like occasion, though I
was almost every night in the same room with him, nor ever
offered me any indecorum. Mr. Addison came to me a
night or two after Philips had talked in this idle manner,
and assured me of his disbelief of what had been said, of
the friendship we should always maintain, and desired I
would say nothing further of it. My Lord Halifax did me
the honour to stir in this matter, by speaking to several
people to obviate a false aspersion, which might have done
me no small prejudice with one party. Plowever, Philips
did all he could secretly to continue the report with the
Hanover Club, and kept in his hands the subscriptions paid
for me to him, as secretary to that Club. The heads of it
have since given him to understand, that they take it ill ;
but (upon the terms I ought to be. with such a man) I
would not ask him for this money, but commissioned one
of the players, his equals, to receive it. This is the whole
328 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
matter j but as to the secret grounds of this malignity, the)'
will make a very pleasant history when we meet."
Another account says that the rod was hung up at the bar
of Button's, and that Pope avoided it by remaining at home —
" his usual custom." Philips was known for his courage and
superior dexterity with the sword : he afterwards became '
justice of the peace, and used to mention Pope, whenever
he could get a man in authority to listen to him, as an
enemy to the Government
At Button's the leading company, particularly Addison
and Steele, met in large flowing flaxen wigs. Sir Godfrey
Kneller, too, was a frequenter.
The master died in 1731, when in tlie Daily Advertiser,
Oct S, appeared the following: — "On Sunday morning,
died, after three days' illness, Mr. Button, who formerly kept
Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent Garden ; a
very noted house for wits, being the place where the Lyon
produced the famous Tatlers and Spectators, written by the
late Mr. Secretary Addison and Sir Richard Steele, Knt,
which works will transmit their names with honour to pos-
terity." Mr. Cunningham found in the vestry-books of St
Paul's, Covent Garden : " 1719, April 16. Received of Mr.
Daniel Button, for two places in the pew No. 18, on the
south side of the north Isle, — 2/. 2s." J. T. Smith states
that a few years after Button, the Coffee-house declined, and
Button's name appeared in the books of St Paul's, as re-
ceiving an allowance from the parish.
Button's continued in vogue until Addison's death and
Steele's retirement into Wales, after which the house was
deserted ; the coffee-drinkers went to the Bedford Coffee-
house, the dinner-parties to the Shakspeare.
Among other wits who frequented Button's were Swift,
Arbuthnot, Savage, Budgell, Martin Folkes, and Drs. Garth
and Armstrong. In 1720, Hogarth mentions " four drawings
in Indian ink " of the characters at Button's Coffee-house.
In these were sketches of Arbuthnot, Addison, Pope, (as it
BUTTON'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 329
is conjectured,) and a certain Count Viviani, identified years
afterwards by Horace Walpole, when the drawings came
under his notice. They subsequently came into Ireland's
possession.*
Jemmy Maclaine, or M'Clean, the fashionable highway-
man, was a frequent visitor at Button's. Mr. John Taylor,
of the Sun newspaper, describes Maclaine as a tall, showy,
good-looking man. A Mr. Donaldson told Taylor that,
observing Maclaine paid particular attention to the barmaid
of the Coffee-house, the daughter of the landlord, he gave a
hint to the father of Machine's dubious character. The
father cautioned the daughter against the highwayman's
addresses, and imprudently told her by whose advice he put
her on her guard ; she as imprudently told Maclaine. The
next time Donaldson visited the Coffee-room, and was
sitting in one of the boxes, Maclaine entered, and in a loud
tone said, " Mr. Donaldson, I wish to spake to you in a
private room." Mr. D. being unarmed, and naturally afraid
of being alone with such a man, said, in answer, that as
nothing could pass between them that he did not wish the
whole world to know, he begged leave to decline the in-
vitation. " Very well," said Maclaine, as he left the room,
" we shall meet again." A day or two after, as Mr. Donald-
son was walking near Richmond, in the evening, he saw
Maclaine on horseback ; but, fortunately, at that moment, a
gentleman's carriage appeared in view, when Maclaine im-
mediately turned his horse towards the carriage, and
Donaldson hurried into the protection of Richmond as fast
as he could. But for the appearance of the carriage, which
presented better prey, it is probable that Maclaine would
have shot Mr. Donaldson immediately.
Maclaine's father was an Irish Dean ; his brother was a
Calvinist minister in great esteem at the Hague. Maclaine
* From Mr. Sala's vivid "William Hogarth;" Comhill Magazim,
vol. i. p. 428.
330 CLim LIFE OP LONDON.
himself had been a grocer in- Welbeck-street, but losing a
wife that he loved extremely, and by whom he had one little
girl, he quitted his business with two htmdred pounds in his
pocket, which he soon spent, and then took to the road with
only one companion, Plunket, a journeyman apothecary.
Maclaine was taken in the autumn of 1750, by selling a
laced waistcoat to a pawnbroker in Monmouth-street, who
happened to carry it to the very man who had just sold the
lace. Maclaine impeached his companion, Plunket, but he
was not taken. The former got into verse : Gray, in his
" Long Story," sings :
A sudden fit of ague shook him ;
He stood as mute as poor M'Lean.
Button's subsequently became a private house, and here
Mrs. Inchbald lodged, probably, after the death of her
sister, for whose support she practised such noble and
generous self-denial. Mrs. Inchbald's income was now 172/.
a year, and we are told that she now went to reside in a
boarding-house, where she enjoyed more of the comforts of
ife. Phillips, the publisher, offered her a thousand pounds
for her Memoirs, which she declined. She died in a
boarding-house at Kensington, on the 1st of August, 1821,
leaving about 6000/. judiciously divided amongst her rela-
tives. Her simple and parsimonious habits were very
strange. " Last Thursday," she writes, " I finished scouring
my bedroom, while a coach with a coronet and two footmen
waited at my door to take me an airing."
" One of the most agreeable memories connected with
Button's," says Leigh Hunt, " is that of Garth, aman whom,
-for the sprightliness and generosity of his nature, it is a
pleasure to name. He was one of the most amiable and
intelligent of a most amiable and intelligent class of men —
the physicians."
331
Dean Swift at Button's.
It was just after Queen Anne's accession, that Swift made
acquaintance with the leaders of the wits at Button's*
Ambrose Philips refers to. him as the strange clergyman
whom the frequenters of the Coffee-house had observed for
some days. He knew no one, no one knew him. He
would lay his hat down on a table, and walk up and down
at a brisk pace for half an hour without speaking to any
one, or seeming to pay attention to anything that was going
forward. Then he would snatch up his hat, pay his money
at the bar, and walk off, without having opened his lips.
The frequenters of the room had christened him " the mad
parson." One evening, as Mr. Addison and the rest were
observing him, they saw him cast his eyes several times
upon a gentleman in boots, who seemed to be just come out
of the country. At last. Swift advanced towards this bucolic
gentleman, as if intending to address him. They were all
eager to hear what the dumb parson had to say, and
immediately quitted their seats to get near him. Swift went
up to the country gentleman, and in a very abrupt manner,
without any previous salute, asked him, " Pray, Sir, do you
know any good weather in the world ?" After staring a little
at the singularity of Swift's manner and the oddity of the
question, the gentleman answered, " Yes, Sir, I thank God
I remember a great deal of good weather in my time." —
"That is more," replied Swift, "than I can say; I never
remember any weather that was not too hot or too cold, too
wet or too dry ; but, however God Almighty contrives it, at
the end of the year 'tis all very well."
Sir Walter Scott gives, upon the authority of Dr. Wall, of
Worcester, who had it from Dr. Arbuthnot himself, the
following anecdote — less coarse than the version generally
told. Swift was seated by the fire at Button's : there was
sand on the floor of the coffee-room, and Arbuthnot, with a
332 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
design to play upon this original figure, offered him a letter,
which he had been just addressing, saying at the same time,
" There — sand that." — " I have got no sand," answered
Swift, "but I can help you to a httle gravel." This he
said so significantly, that Arbuthnot hastily snatched back
his letter, to save it from the fate of the capital of Lilliput.
Tom's Coffee-house,
In Birchin-lane, Comhill, though in the main a mercantile
resort, acquired some celebrity from its having been fre-
quented by Garrick, who, to keep up an interest in the City,
appeared here about twice in a winter at 'Change time, when
it was the rendezvous of young merchants. Hawkins says :
"After all that has been said of Mr. Garrick, envy must
own that he owed his celebrity to his merit; and yet, of
that himself seemed so diffident, that he practised sundry
little but innocent arts, to insure the favour of the public :"
yet, he did more. When a rising actor complained to
Mrs. Garrick that the newspapers abused him, the widow
replied, "You should write your own criticisms; David
always did."
One evening. Murphy was at Tom's, when Colley Gibber
was playing at whist, with an old general for his partner.
As the cards were dealt to him, he took up every one in
turn, and expressed his disappointment at each indifferent
one. In the progress of the game he did not follow suit,
and his partner said, " What ! have you not a spade, Mr.
Gibber ?" The latter, looking at his cards, answered, " Oh
yes, a thousand ;" which drew a very peevish comment from
the general. On which. Gibber, who was shockingly ad-
dicted to swearing, replied, " Don't be angry, for 1 can
play ten times worse if I like."
333
The Bedford Coffee-house, in Covent Garden.
This celebrated resort once attracted so much attention
as to have published, " Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-
house,'' two editions, 1751 and 1763. It stood "under
the Piazza, in Covent Garden," in the north-west comer,
near the entrance to the theatre, and has long ceased to exist.
In the Connoisseur, No. i, 1754, we are assured that
" this Coflfee-house is every night crowded with men of parts.
Almost every one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit.
Jokes and bon-mots are echoed from box to box : every
branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of
every production of the press, or performance of the theatres,
weighed and determined."
And in the above-named " Memoirs," we read that " this
spot has been signalized for many years as the emporium of
wit, the seat of criticism, and the standard of taste. — Names
of those who frequented the house : — Foote, Mr. Fielding,
Mr. Woodward, Mr. Leone, Mr. Murphy, Mopsy, Dr.
Ame. Dr. Ame was the only man in a suit of velvet in
the dog-days."
Stacie kept the Bedford when John and Henry Fielding,
Hogarth, Churchill, Woodward, Lloyd, Dr. Goldsmith, and
many others met there and held a gossiping shilling rubber
club. Henry Fielding was a very merry feUow.
The Inspector appears to have given rise, to this reign of
the Bedford, when there was placed here the Lion from
Button's, which proved so serviceable to Steele, and once
more fixed the dominion of wit in Covent Garden.
The reign of wit and pleasantry did not, however, cease
at the Bedford at the demise of the Inspector. A race of
punsters next succeeded. A particular box was allotted to
this occasion, out of the hearing of the lady at the bar, that
the double entendres, which were sometimes very indelicate,
might not offend her.
334 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The Bedford was beset with scandalous nuisances, of
Which the follov/ing letter, from Arthur Murphy to • Garrick,
April lo, 1769, presents a pretty picture :
" Tiger Roach (who used to bully at the Bedford Goifee-
house because his name was Roach) is set up by Wilkes's
friends to burlesque. Euttrel and his pretensions. I own I
do not know a more ridiculous circumstance than to be a
joint candidate with the Tiger. O'Brien used to take him
off very pleasantly, and perhaps you may, from his represen-
tation, have some idea of this important Svight. He used to
sit with a half-starved look, a black patch upon his cheek,
pale with the idea of murder, or with rank cowardice,' a
quivering lip, and a downcast eye. In that manner he used
to sit at a table all alone, and his soliloquy, interrupted now
and then with faint attempts to throv/ off a little saliva, was
to the following effect : — ' Hut ! hut ! a mercer's 'prentice
with a bag-wig; — d — ^n my s — 1, if I would not skiver a
dozen of them like larks ! Hut ! hut ! I don't understand
such airs ! — I'd cudgel him back,. breast, and belly, for three
skips of a louse ! — How do you do, Pat? Hut ! hut ! God's
blood — ^Larry, I'm glad to see you j — 'Prentices ! a fine thing
indeed ! — Hut ! hut ! How do you, Dominick ! — D— n niy
s — 1, what's here to do !' These were the meditations of
this agreeable youth. From one of these reveries he started
up one night, when I was there, cstUed a Mr. Bagnell out of
the room, and most heroically stabbed him in the dark, the
other having no weapon to defend himself with. In this
career the Tiger persisted, till at length a Mr. Lennard
brandished a whip over his head, and stood in a menacing
attitude, commandiBg him to ask pardon directly. The
Tiger shrank from the danger, and with a faint voice pro-
nounced — ' Hut ! what signifies it between you and me ?
Well! well! I ask your pardon.' 'Speak louder. Sir; I
don't hear a word you say.' And indeed he was so very tall,
that it seemed as if the sound, sent feebly from below, could
BEDFORD COFFEE-HOUSE, COVENT-GARDEN. 335
not ascend to such a height. This is the hero who is to
figure at Brentford."
Foote's favourite Coffee-house was the Bedford. He was
also a constant frequenter of Tom's, and took a lead in the
Club held there, and already described.*
Dr. Barrowby, the well-known newsmonger of the Bedford,
and the satirical critic of the day, has left this whole-length
sketch of Foote : — " One evening (he says); he saw a young
man extravagantly dressed out in a frock suit of green and
silver lace, bag-wig, sword, bouquet, and point-ruffles, enter
the room (at the Bedford), and immediately join the critical
circle at the upper end. Nobody recognised him ; but such
was the ease of his bearing, and the point of humour and
remark with which he at once took up the conversation,
that his presence seemed to disconcert no one, and a sort of
pleased buzz- of ' who is he ?' was still going round the room
unanswered, when a handsome carriage stopped at the door ;
he rose, and quitted the room, and the servants announced
that his name was Foote, and that he was a young gentleman
of family and fortune, a student of the Inner Temple, and
that the carriage had called for him on its way \a the
assembly of a lady of fashion." Dr. Barrowby once turned
the laugh against Foote at the Bedford, when he was osten-
tatiously showing his gold repeater, with the remark —
" Why, my watch does not go !" " It soon will go" quietly
remarked the Doctor. Young Collins, the poet, who came
to town in 1744 to seek his fortune, made his way, to the
Bedford, where Foote was supreme among the wits and
critics. •' Like Foote, Collins was fond of fine clothes, and
walked about with a feather in his hat, very unlike a young
man who had not a single guinea he could call his own. A
letter of the time tells us that " Collins was an acceptable
companion everywhere ; and among the gentlemen who
See "Club at Tom's Coffee-house," pp. 136—140.
336 CLUB LIFE OF LONDOKT.
loved him for a genius, may be reckoned the Doi^tois
Armstrong, Barrowby, Hill, Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and
Foote, who frequently took his opinion upon their pieces
before they were seen by the public. He was particularly
noticed by the geniuses who frequented the Bedford and
Slaughter's Coffee-houses."*
Ten years later (1754) we find Foote again supreme in his
critical corner at the Bedford. The regulaj frequenters of
the room strove to get admitted to his party at supper ; and
others got as near as they could to the table, as the only
humour flowed from Foote's tongue. The Bedford was now
in its highest repute.
Foote and Garrick often met at the Bedford, and many
and sharp were their encounters. They were the two great
rivals of the day. Foote usually attacked, and Garrick, who
had many weak points, was mostly the sufferer. Garrick, in
early life, had been in the wine trade, and had supplied the
Bedford with wine; he was thus described by Foote as
living in Durham-yard, with three quarts of vinegar in the
cellar, calling himself a wine-merchant. How Foote must
have abused the Bedford wine of this period !
One night, Foote came into the Bedford, where Garrick
was seated, and there gave him an account of a most
wonderful actor he had just seen. Garrick was on the
tenters of suspense, and there Foote kept him a full hour.
At last Foote, compassionating the suffering listener, brought
the attack to a close by asking Garrick what he thought of
Mr. Pitt's histrionic talents, when Garrick, glad of the
release, declared that if Pitt had chosen the stage, he might
have been the first actor upon it.
One night, Garrick and Foote were about to leave the
Bedford together, when the latter, in paying the bill, dropped
a guinea; and not finding it at once, said, "Where on
* Memoir by Moy Thomas, prefixed to CoUins's Poetical Works.
Bell and Daldy, 1858.
Hand and. Shears, Smithfield.
{Noted House for Tailors and Actors.)
The Old White Hart, Bishopsgate, Jbuilt in 1480,
BEDFORD COFFEE-HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN. 337
earth can it be gone to ?" — " Gone to the devil, I think,"
replied Garrick, who had assisted in the search. — " Well
said, David !" was Foote's reply, " let you alone for making
a guinea go fiirther than anybody else."
Churchill's quarrel with Hogarth began at the shilling
rubber club, in the parlour of the Bedford ; when Hogarth
used some very insulting language towards Churchill, who
resented it in the Epistle. This quarrel showed more
venom than wit : — " Never," says Walpole, " did two angry
men of their abilities throw mud with less dexterity."
Woodward, the comedian, mostly lived at the Bedford,
was intimate with Stacie, the landlord, and gave him his
(W.'s) portrait, with a mask in his hand, one of the early
pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Stacie played an excellent
game at whist One morning, about two o'clock, one of
his waiters awoke him to tell him that a nobleman had
knocked him up, and had desired him to call his master to
play a rubber with him for one hundred guineas. Stacie
got up, dressed himself, won the money, and was in bed and
asleep, all within an hour.
Of two houses in the Piazza, built for Francis, Earl of
Bedford, we obtain some minute information from the lease
granted in 1634, to Sir Edmxmd Vemey, Knight Marshal to
ICing Charles I. ; these two houses being just then erected
as part of the 'Piazza.. There are also included in the lease
the " yardes, stables, coach-houses, and gardens now layd,
or hereafter to be layd, to the said messuages," which
description of the premises seems to identify them as the
two houses at the southern end of the Piazza, adjoining ta
Great Russell-street, and now occupied as the Bedford.
Coffee-house and Hotel. They are either the same premises, ,
or they immediately adjoin the premises, occupied a century,
later as the Bedford Coffee-house. (Mr. John Bruce„
Archceolog^a, xxxv. 195.) The lease contains a minute speci-
fication of the landlord's fittmgs and customary accommo-
dations of what were then some of the most fashionable
33S CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
residences in the metropolis. In the attached schedule is
the use of the wainscot, enumerating separately every piece
of wainscot on the premises. The tenant is bound to keep
in repair the " Portico . Walke " underneath the premises ;
he is at all times to have " ingresse, egresse and regresse,"
through the Portico Walk ; and he may " expel, put, or
drive away out of the said walke any youth or other person
whatsoever which shall eyther play or be in the said Portico
Walke in offence or disturbance to the said Sir Edmund
Vemey."
The inventory of the fixtures is curious. It enumerates every apart-
ment, from the beer-cellar, and the strong beer- cellar, the scullery, the
pantry, and the buttery, to the dining and vi^ithdrawing rooms. Most
of the rooms had casement windows, but the dining-room next Russell-
street, and other principal apartments, had "shutting windowes." The
principal rooms were also "double creasted round for hangings," and
were wainscoted round the chimney-pieces, and doors and windows.
In one case, a study, " south towards Russell-street, the whole room was
wainscoted, and the hall in part." Most of the windows had "soil-
boards" attached; the room,-doors had generally "stock-locks," in
some places " spring plate locks " and spring bolts. There is not
mentioned anything approaching to a fire-grate in any of the rooms,
except perhaps in the kitchen, where Occurs "a travers barre for the
chimney."
Macklin's Coffee-house Oratory.
After Macklin had retired from the stage, in 1754, he
opened that portion of the Piazza-houses, in Covent Garden,
which is now the Tavistock Hotel. Here he fitted up a
large coffee-room, a theatre for oratory, and other apart-
ments. To a three-shilling ordinary he added a shilling
lecture, or " School of Oratory and Criticism f he presided
at the dinner-table, and carved for the company; after
which he played a sort of " Oracle of Eloquence." Fielding
has happily sketched him in his " Voyage to Lisbon :
" Unfortunately for the fishmongers of London, the Dory
only resides in the Devonshire seas ; for could any of this
company only convey one to the Temple of luxury under
MACKLIN'S COFFEE-HOUSE ORATORY. 339
the Piazza, where Macklin, the high priest, daily serves up
his rich offerings, great would be the reward of that fish-
monger."
In the Lecture, Macklin undertook to make each of his
audience an orator, by teaching him how to speak. He
invited hints and discussions ; the novelty of the scheme
attracted the curiosity of numbers; and this curiosity he
still further excited by a very uncommon controversy which
now subsisted, either in imagination or reality, between him
and Foote, who abused one another very openly — " Squire
Sammy " having for his purpose engaged the Little Theatre
in the Haymarket.
Besides this personal attack, various subjects were debated
here in the manner of the Robin Hood Society, which filled
the orator's pocket, and proved his rhetoric of some value.
Here is one of his combats with Foote. The subject was
Duelling in Ireland, which MackUn had illustrated as far as
the reign of Elizabeth. Foote cried " Order ;" he had a ques-
tion to put. " Well, Sir," said Macklin, " what have you to
say upon this subject ?" " I think. Sir," said Foote, " this
matter might be settled in a few words. What o'clock is it,
Sir ?" MackUn could not possibly see what the clock had to
do with a dissertation upon Duelling, but gruffly reported the
hour to be half-past nine. " Very well," said Foote, " about
this time of the night every gentleman in Ireland that can
possibly afford it is in his third bottle of r.laret, and therefore
in a fair way of getting drunk ; and from . drunkenness pro
ceeds quarrelling, and from quarelling, duelling, and so
there's an end of the chapter." The company were much
obliged to Foote for his interference, the hour being
considered ; though Macklin did not relish the abridgment.
The success of Foote's fun upon Macklin's Lectures, led
him to establish a summer entertainment of his own at the
Haymarket He took up Macklin's notion of applying
Greek Tragedy to modem subjects, and the squib was so
successful that Foote cleared by it 500/. in five nights,
34° CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
while the great Piazza Coffee-room in Covent Garden was
shut up, and Macklin in the Gazette as a bankrupt
But when the great plan of Mr. Macklin proved abortive,
when as he said in a former prologue, upon a nearly similar
occasion —
From scheming, fretting, famine, and despair,
We saw to grace restor'd an exiled player ;
when the town was sated with the seemingly-concocted
quarrel between the two theatrical geniuses, Macklin locked
up his doors, all animosity was laid aside, and they came
and shook hands at the Bedford ; the group resumed their
appearance, and, with a new master, a new set of customers
was seen.
Tom King's Coffee-house.
This was one of the old night-houses of Covent Garden
Market : it was a rude shed immediately beneath the portico
of St. Paul's Church, and was one "well known to all
gentlemen to whom beds are unknown." Fielding in one of
his Prologues says :
What rake is ignorant of King's Coffee-house ?
It is in the background of Hogarth's print of Morning, where
the prim maiden lady, walking to church, is soured with
seeing two fuddled beaux from King's Coffee-house caressing
two frail women. At the door there is a drunken row, in
which swords and cudgels are the weapons.
Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, -p. 393, in the account of the
Boys elected from Eton to King's College, contains this
entry: "A.D. 17 13, Thomas King, bom at West Ashton,
in Wiltshire, went away scholar in apprehension that his
fellowship would be denied him ; and afterwards kept that
Coffee-house in Covent Garden, which was called by his
own name."
Moll King was landlady after Tom's deatn : she was
witty, and her house was much frequented, though it was
TOM KINGS COFFEE-HOUSE. 341
little better than a shed. " Noblemen and the first beaux"
said Stacie, " after leaving Court would go to her house in
full dress, with swords and bags, and in rich brocaded silk
coats, and walked and conversed with persons of every
description. She would serve chimney-sweepers, gardeners,
and the market-people in common with her lords of the
highest rank. Mr. Apreece, a tall thin man in rich dress,
was her constant customer. He was called Cadwallader by
the frequenters of Moll's." It is not surprising that Moll
was often fined for keeping a disorderly house. At length,
she retired from business — ^and the pillory — to Hampstead,
where she lived on her ill-earned gains, but paid for a pew
in church, and was charitable at appointed seasons, and died
in peace in 1747.
It was at that period that Mother Needham, Mother
Douglass {alias, according to Foote's Minor, Mother Cole),
and Moll King, the tavern-keepers and the gamblers, took
possession of premises abdicated by people of fashion.
Upon the south side of the market-sheds was the noted
" Finish," kept by Mrs. Butler, open all night, the last of the
Garden taverns, and only cleared away in 1829. This house
was originally the Queen's Head. Shuter was pot-boy here.
Here was a picture of the Hazard Club, at the Bedford : it
was painted by Hogarth and filled a panel of the Cofiee-
room.
Captain Laroon, an amateur painter of the time of
Hogarth, who often witnessed the nocturnal revels at Moll
King's, made a large and spirited drawing of the interior of
her Coffee-house, which was at Strawberry Hill. It was-
bought for Walpole, by his printer, some seventy-five years
since. There is also an engraving of the same room, in which
is introduced a whole-length of Mr. Apreece, in a full court-
dress : an impression of this plate is extremely rare.
Justice Welsh used to say that Captain Laroon, his friend
Captain Montague, and their constant companion. Little
Casey, the Link-boy, were the three most troublesome of all
342 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
his Bow-street visitors. The portraits of these three heroes
are introduced in Boitard's rare print of the " Covent Garden
Morning Frolic." Laroon is brandishing an artichoke.
C. Montague is seated, drunk, on the top of Bet Careless's
sedan, which is preceded by Little Casey, as a link-boy.
Captain 'Laroon also painted a large folding-screen ; the
figures were full of broad humour, two representing a Quack
Doctor and his Merry Andrew, before the gaping crowd.
Laroon was deputy-chairman, under Sir Robert Walpole,
of a Club, consisting of six gentlemen only, who met, at
stated times, in the drawing-room of Scott, the marine
painter, in Henrietta-street, Covent Garden ; and it was una-
nimously agreed by the members, that they should be at-
tended by Scott's wife only, who was a remarkable witty
woman. Laroon made a beautiful conversation drawing of
the Club, which is highly prized by J. T. Smith.
Piazza Coffee-house.
This establishment, at the north-eastern angle of Covent
Garden Piazza, appears to have originated with Macklin's ;
for we read in an advertisement in the Ptiblic Advertiser,
March 5, 1756 : "the Great Piazza Coffee-room, in Covent
Garden."
The Piazza was much frequented by Sheridan ; and here
is located the well-known anecdote told of his coolness
during the burning of Drury-lane Theatre, in 1809. It is
said that as he sat at the Piazza, during the fire, taking some
refireshment, a friend of his having remarked on the philo-
sophical calmness with which he bore his misfortune, Sheridan
replied : " A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of
wine by his ow7i fireside.''
Sheridan and John Kemble ofteu dined together at the
Piazza, to be handy to the theatre. During Kemble's ma-
nagement, Sheridan had occasion to make a complaint, which
brought a "nervous" letter from Kemble, to which Sheridan's
THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE. 343
reply is amusing enough. Thus, he writes : " that the
management of a theatre is a situation capable of becoming
troublesome, is information which I do not want, and a dis-
covery which I thought you had made long ago." Sheridan
then treats Kemble's letter as " a nervous flight," not to be
noticed seriously, adding his anxiety for the interest of the
theatre, and alluding to Kemble's touchiness and reserve j
and thus concludes :
" If there is anything amiss in your mind not arising from
the trouhlesomeness of your situation, it is childish and un-
manly not to disclose it. The frankness with which I have
dealt towards you entities me to expect that you should have
done so.
" But I have no reason to believe this to be the case ;
and attributing your letter to a disorder which I know ought
not to be indulged, I prescribe that thou shalt keep thine
appointment at the Piazza Coffee-house, to-morrow at five,
and, taking four bottles of claret instead of three, to which
in sound health you might stint yourself, forget that you
ever wrote the letter, as I shall that I ever received it.
"R. B. Sheridan."
The Piazza fagade, and interior, were of Gothic design.
The house has been taken down, and in its place was built
the Floral Hall, after the Crystal Palace model.
The Chapter Coffee-house.
In pp. 153-158, we described this as a literary place of
resort in Paternoster Row, more especially in connexion
v/ith the Wittinagemot of the last century.
A very interesting account of the Chapter, at a later
period (1848), is given by Mrs. Gaskell. The Coffee-house
is thus described : —
"Paternoster Row was for many years sacred to pub-
lishers. It is a narrow flagged street, lying under the shadow
of St. Paul's ; at each end there are posts placed, so as to
344 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
prevent the passage of carriages, and thus preserve a solemn
silence for the deliberations of the ' fathers of the Row.'
The dull warehouses on each side are mostly occupied at
present by wholesale stationers ; if they be publishers' shops,
they show no attractive front to the dark and narrow street.
Halfway up on the left-hand side is the Chapter CoiFee-
house. I visited it last June. It was then unoccupied ; it
had the appearance of a dwelling-house two hundred years
old or so, such as one sometimes sees in ancient country
towns ; the ceilings of the small rooms were low, and had
heavy beams running across them; the walls were wainscoted
breast-high; the staircase was shallow, broad, and dark,
taking up much space in the centre of the house. This then
was the Chapter Coffee-house, which, a century ago, was the
resort of all the booksellers and publishers, and where the
literary hacks, the critics, and even the wits used to go in
search of ideas or employment. This was the place about,
which Chatterton wrote, in those delusive letters he sent to
his mother at Bristol, while he was star\'ing in London.
" Years later it became the tavern frequented by university
men, and country clergymen, who were up in London for a
few days, and, having no private friends or access into so-
ciety, were glad to learn what was going on in the world of
letters, from the conversation which they were sure to hear
in the coffee-room. It was a place solely frequented by
men ; I believe there was but one female servant in the
house. Few people slept there : some of the stated meetings
of the trade were held in it, as they had been for more than
a century ; and occasionally country booksellers, with now
and then a clergyman, resorted to it. In the long, low,
dingy room upstairs, the meetings of the trade were held.
The high narrow windows looked into the gloomy Row ;
nothing of motion or of change could be seen in the grim
dark houses opposite, so near and close, although the whole
breadth of the Row was between. The mighty roar of London
was round, like the sound of an unseen ocean, yet every
LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE. 345
foot-fall on the pavement below might be heard distinctly,
in that unfrequented street."
Goldsmith frequented the Chapter, and always occupied
one place, which for many years after was the seat of literary
honour there.
There are Leather Tokens of the Chapter Coffee-house in
existence.
Child's Coffee-house,
In St. Paul's Churchyard, was one of the Spectator's houses.
" Sometimes," he says, " I smoke a pipe at Child's, and
whilst I seem attentive to nothing but the Postman, over-
hear the conversation of every table in the room." It was
much frequented by the clergy ; for the Spectator, No. 609,
notices the mistake of a country gentleman in taking all
persons in scarfs for Doctors of Divinity, since only a scarf
of the first magnitude entitles him to " the appellation of
Doctor from his landlady and the Boy at Child's."
Child's was the resort of Dr. Mead, and other professional
men of eminence. The Fellows of the Royal Society came
here. Whiston relates that Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Halley,
and he were once at Child's when Dr. H. asked him, W.,
why he was not a member of the Royal Society ? Whiston
answered, because they durst not choose a heretic. Upon
which Dr. H. said, if Sir Hans Sloane would propose him,
W., he, Dr, H., would second it, which was done ac-
cordingly.
The propinquity of Child's to the Cathedral and Doctors'
Commons, made it the resort of the clergy, and ecclesiastical
loungers. In one respect, Child's was superseded by the
Chapter, in Paternoster Row.
London Coffee-house.
This Coffee-house was established previous to the year
1 73 1, for we find of it the following advertisement : —
346 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
"May, 1731.
"Whereas, it is customary for Coffee-houses and other
Public-housesj to take 8j. for a quart of Arrack, and 6j. for
a quart of Brandy or Rum, made into Punch :
" This is to give Notice,
" That James Ashley has opened, on Ludgate Hill, the
London Coffee-house, Punch-house, Dorchester Beer and
Welsh Ale Warehouse, where the finest and best old Arrack,
Rum, and French Brandy is made into Punch, with the
other of the finest ingredients — viz., A quart of Arrack made
into Punch for six shillings ; and so in proportion to the
smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartem for fourpence
halfpenny. A quart of Rum or Brandy made into Punch
for four shillings; and so in proportion to the smallest
quantity, which is half-a-quartem lor fourpence halfpenny ;
and gentlemen may have it as soon made as a gill of Wine
can be drawn."
The premises occupy a Roman site; for, in 1800, in the
rear of the house, in a bastion of the City Wall, was found
a sepulchral monument, dedicated to Claudina Martina by
her husband, a provincial Roman soldier ; here also were
found a fragment of a statue of Hercules and a female head.
In front of the Coffee-house, immediately west of St. Martin's
Church, stood Ludgate.
The London Coffee-house (now a tavern) is noted for its
publishers' sales of stock and copyrights. It was within the
rules of the Fleet prison : and in the Coffee-house are
" locked up " for the night such juries from the Old Bailey
Sessions, as cannot agree upon verdicts. The house was
long kept by the grandfather and father of Mr. John Leech,
the celebrated artist.
A singular incident occurred at the London Coffee-house,
many years since: Mr. Brayley, the topographer, was present
at a party here, when Mr. Broadhurst, the famous tenor, by
singing a high note, caused a wine-glass on the table to
break, -the bowl being separated from the stem.
TURK'S HEAD COFFEE-HOUSE. 347
At the bar of the London Coffee-house was sold Rowley's
British Cephalic Snuff.
Turk's Head CofFee-house in Change Alley.
From The Kingdom's Intelligencer, a weekly paper, pub-
lished by authority, in 1662, we learn that there had just
been opened a " new Coffee-house," with the sign of the
Turk's Head, where was sold by retail " the right Coffee-
powder," from 4?. to (>s. 8ci. per pound ; that pounded in a
mortar, 2s. ; East India berry, is. dd. ; and the right Turkic
berry, well garbled, at 3^. " The ungarbled for lesse, with
directions how to use the same." Also Chocolate at 2.3. 6d.
per pound ; the perfumed from 4s. to los. ; " also,. Sherbets
made in Turkic, of lemons, roses, and violets perfumed ; and
Tea, or Chaa, according to its goodness. The house seal
was Morat the Great. Gentlemen customers and acquain-
tances are (the next New Year's Day) invited to the sign of
the Great Turk at this new Coffee-house, where Coffee will
be on free cost." The sign, was also Morat the Great.
Morat figures as a tyrant in Dryden's "Aurung Zebe." There
is a token of this house, with the Sultan's head, in the
Beaufoy collection.
Another token in the same collection, is of unusual ex-
cellence, probably by John Roettier. It has on the obverse,
Morat y" Great Men did mee call, — Sultan's head ; reverse,
Where care I came I conquered all. — In the field, Coffee,
Tobacco, Sherbet, Tea, Chocolate, Retail in Exchange Alee.
" The word Tea," says Mr. Burn, " occurs on no other tokens
than those issued from ' the Great Turk ' Coffee-house, in
Exchange-alley;" in one of its advertisements, 1662, tea is
from 6s. to 6oj. a pound.
Competition arose. One Constantine Jennings in Thread-
needle-street, over against St. Christopher's Church, ad-
vertised that coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea, the
right Turkey berry, may be had as cheap and as good
345 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
of him as is any where to be had for money; and that
people may there be taught to prepare the said liquors
gratis.
Pepys, in his "Diary," tells, Sept. 25, 1669, of his sending
for "a cup of Tea, a China Drink, he had not before
tasted." Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, about 1666, in-
troduced tea at Court. And, in his " Sir Charles Sedley's
Mulberry Garden," we are told that " he who wished to be
considered a man of fashion always drank wine-and-water at
dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards." These details are con-
densed from Mr. Burn's excellent " Beaufoy Catalogue." and
edition, 1855.
In Gerard-street, Soho, also, was another Turk's Head
Coffee-house, where was held a Turk's Head Society; in
1777, we find Gibbon writing to Garrick : " At this time of
year, (Aug. 14,) the Society of the Turk's Head can no longer
be addressed as a corporate body, and most of the individual
members are probably disperssd: Adam Smith, in Scotland;
Burke in the shades of Beaconsfield ; Fox, the Lord or the
devil knows where."
This place was a kind of head-quarters for the Loyal
Association during the Rebellion of 1745.
Here was founded "The Literary Club," already described
in pp. 174—187.
In 1753, several artists met at the Turk's Head, and from
thence their Secretary, Mr. F. M. Newton, dated a printed
letter to the Artists to form a select body for the Protection
and Encouragement of Art. Another Society of Artists
met in Peter's-court, St. Martin's-lane, from the year
1739 to 1769. After continued squabbles, which lasted
for many years, the principal Artists met together at the
Turk's Head, where many others having joined them, they
petitioned the King (George III.) to become patron of a
Royal Academy of Art. His Majesty consented ; and the
new Society took a room in Pall Mall, opposite to Market-
lane, where they remained until the King, in the year 1771,
SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 349
granted them apartments in Old Somerset House.—/. T.
Smith.
The Turk's Head Coffee-house, No. 142, in the Strand,
was a favourite supping-house with Dr. Johnson and Boswell,
in whose Life of Johnson are several entries, commencing
with 1763 — "At night, Mr. Johnson and I supped in a
private room at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, in the Strand;
' I encourage this house,' said he, 'for the mistress of it is a
good civil woman, and has not much business.' " Another
entry is — "We concluded the day at the Turk's Head
Coffee-house very socially." And, August 3, 1673 — "We
had our last social meeting at the Turk's Head Coffee-house,
before my setting out for foreign parts."
The name was afterwards changed to "The Turk's Head,
Canada and Bath Coffee-house," and was a well-frequented
tavern and hotel : it was taken down, and a very handsome
lofty house erected upon the site, at the cost of, we believe,
eight thousand pounds ; it was opened as a tavern and
hotel, but did not long continue.
At the Turk's Head, or Miles's Coffee-house, New Palace-
yard, Westminster, the noted Rota Club met, founded by
Harrington, in 1659 : where was a large oval table, with a
passage in the middle, for Miles to deliver his coffee. (See
pp. 13, 14),
Squire's Coffee-house.
In Fulwood's {vulgo Fuller's) Rents, in Holbom, nearly
opposite Chancery-lane, in the reign of James I., lived
Christopher Fulwood, in a mansion of some pretension, of
which an existing house of the period is said to be the
remams. "Some will have it," says Hatton, 1708, "that it
is called from being a woody place before there were buildings
here; but its being called Fullwood's Rents (as it is in deeds
and leases), shows it to be the rents of one called FuUwood,
the owner or builder thereof." Strype describes the Rents,
3is« CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
or court, as running up to Gra/s-Inn, " into which it has an
entrance through the gate; a place of good resort, and taken
up by cofifee-houses, ale-houses, and houses of entertainment,
by reason of its vicinity to Gray's-Inn. On the east side is
a handsome open place, with a handsome freestone pave-
ment, and better , built, and inhabited by private house-
keepers. At the upper end of this court is a passage into
the Castle Tavern, a house of considerable trade, as is the
Golden Griffin Tavern, on the west side."
Here was John's, one of the earliest Coffee-houses ; and
adjoining Gray's-Inn gate is a deep-coloured red-brick house,
once Squire's Coffee-house, kept by Squire, " a noted man
in Fuller's Rents," who died in 1717. The house is veiy
roomy; it has been handsome, and has a wide staircase.
Squire's was one of the receiving-houses of the Spectator:
in No. 269, January 8, 1711— 1712, he accepts Sir Roger de
Coverley's invitation to "smoke a pipe with him over a dish
of coffee at Squire's. As I love the old man, I take delight
in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and
accordingly waited on him to the Coffee-house, where his
venerable figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room.
He had no sooner seated himself at the upper end of the
high table, but he called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a
dish of coffee, a wax candle, and the Supplement [a periodical
paper of that time], with such an air of cheerfulness and
good humour, that all the boys in the coffee-room, (who
seemed to take pleasure in serving him,) were at once em-
ployed on his several errands, insomuch that nobody else
could come at a dish of tea, until the Knight had got all his
conveniences about him." Such was the cofifee-room in the
Spectator's day. ;
Gray's-Inn Walks, to which the Rents led, across Field-
court, were then, a fashionable promenade; and here Sir
Roger could " clear his pipes in good air ;" for scarcely a
house intervened thence to Hampstead. Though Ned
Ward, in his " London Spy," says — " I found- none but a
SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 351
parcel of superannuated debauchees, huddled up in cloaks,
frieze coats, and wadded gowns, to protect their old carcases
from the sharpness of Hampstead air; creeping up and
down in pairs and leashes no faster than the hand of a dial,
or a county convict going to execution ; some talking of
law, some of religion, and some of politics. After I had
walked two or three times round, I sat myself down in the
upper walk, where just before me, on a stone pedestal, we
fixed an old rusty horizontal dial, with the gnomon broke
short off." Round the sun-dial, seats were arranged in a
semicircle.
Gra/s-Inn Gardens were resorted to by dangerous classes.
Expert pickpockets and plausible ring-droppers found easy
prey there on crowded days ; and in old plays the Gardens
are repeatedly mentioned as a place of negotiation for clan-
destine lovers, which led to the walks being closed, except
at stated hours.
Eetuming to Fulwood's Rents, we may here describe
another of its attractions, the Tavern and punch-house,
within one door of Gray's-Inn, apparently the King's Head.
From some time before 1699, until his death in 1731, Ward
kept this house, which he thus commemorates, or, in another
word, puffs, in his " London Spy :" being a vintner himself,
we may rest assured that he would have penned this in
praise of no other than himself :
To speak but the truth of my honest friend Ned,
The best of all vintners that ever God made ;
He's free of the beef, and as free of his bread,
And washes both down with his glass of rare red,
That tops all the town, and commands a good trade j
Such wine as will cheer up the drooping King's head.
And brisk up the soul, though our body's half dead ;
He scorns to draw bad, as he hopes to be paid ;
And now his name's up, he may e'en lie abed ;
For he'll get an estate — there's no more to be said.
We ought to have remarked, that the ox was roasted, cut
up., and distributed gratis ; a piece of generosity which, by a
3S2 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
poetic fiction, is supposed to have inspired the aboti
limping balderdash.
Slaughter's Coffee-house.
This Coffee-house, famous as the resort of painters and
sculptors, in the last century, was situated at the upper end
of the west side of St. Martin's-lane, three doors from
Newport-street. Its first landlord was Thomas Slaughter,
1692. Mr. Cunningham tells us that a second Slaughter's
(New Slaughter's), was established in the same street about
1760, when the original establishment adopted the name of
" Old Slaughter's," by which designation it was known till
within a few years of the final demolition of the house to
make way for the new avenue between Long-acre and
Leicester-square, formed 1843-44. For many years pre-
vious to the streets of London being completely paved,
" Slaughter's " was called " The Coffee-house on the Pave-
ment." In like manner, "The Pavement," Moorfields,
received its distinctive name. Besides being the resort of
artists, Old Slaughter's was the house of call for Frenchmen.
St. Martin's-lane was long one of the head-quarters of the
artists of the last century. " In the time of Benjamin West,"
says J. T. Smith, " and before the formation of the Royal
Academy, Greek-street, St. Martin's-lane, and Gerard-street,
was their colony. Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, in St.
Martin's-lane, was their grand resort in the evenings, and
Hogarth was a constant visitor." He lived at the Golden
Head, on the eastern side of Leicester Fields, in the
northern half of the Sabloniere Hotel. The head he cut
out himself from pieces of cork, glued and bound together ;
it was placed over the street-door. At this time, young
Benjamin West was living in chambers, in Bedford-street,
Covent Garden, and had there set up his easel; he was
married, in 1765, at St. Martin's Church. Roubiliac wv)s
often to be found at Slaughter's in early life; probably
SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 353
before he gained the patronage of Sir Edward Walpole,
through finding and returning to the baronet the pocket-
book of bank-notes which the young maker of monuments
had picked up in Vauxhall Gardens. Sir Edward, to
remunerate his integrity, and his skill, of which he showed
specimens, promised to patronize Roubiliac through life,
and he faithfully penormed this promise. Young Gains-
borough, who spent three years amid the works of the
painters in St Martin's-lane, Hayman, and Cipriani, who
were all eminently convivial, were, in all probability,
frequenters ol Slaughter's. Smith tells us that Quin and
Hayman were inseparable friends, and so convivial, that they
seldom parted till daylight
Mr. Cunningham relates that here, " in early life, Wilkie
would enjoy a small dinner at a small cost I have been
told by an old Irequenter ot the house, that Wilkie was
always the last dropper-in for a dinner, and that he was
never seen to dine in the house by daylight The truth is,
he slaved at his art at home till the last glimpse of daylight
had disappeared."
Haydon was accustoined, in the early days of his fitful
career, to dine here with Wilkie. In his " Autobiography,"
in the year 1808, Haydon writes : " This period of our lives
was one of great happiness : painting all day, then dining at
the Old Slaughter Chop-house, then going to the Academy
until eight, to fill up the evening, then going home to tea —
that blessing of a studious man — talking over our respective
exploits, what he [Wilkie] had been doing, and what I had
done, and then, frequently to relieve our minds fatigued by
their eight and twelve hours' work, giving vent to the most
extraordinary absurdities. Often have we made rhymes on
odd names, and shouted with laughter at each new line that
was added. Sometimes lazily inclined after a good dinner,
we have lounged about, near Drury Lane or Covent Garden,
hesitatmg whether to go in, and often have I (knowing first
that there was nothing I wished to see) assumed a virtue I
A A
354 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. . .
did n6t possess, and pretending moral siiperiority, preached '
to Wilkie on the weakness of not resisting .such tempta-
tions for the sake of our art and our duty, and marched
him off to his studies, when he was longing to see Mother
Goose." '
1. T. Smith has narrated some fifteen pages of character-
istic aiiecdbtes of the artistic visitors of Old Slaughter's,
which he refers to as "formerly the rendezvous of Pope,
Dryden, and other wits, and much frequented' by seveikl
eminently clever men of his day."
Thither came Ware, the architect, who, when a little
sickly boy, was apprenticed to a chimney-sweeper, and was
seen chalking the street-front of Whitehall, by a gentleman,
who purchased the remainder of the boy's time; gave, him
ah excellent education ; then sent him to Italy, and, upon
his return, employed him, and introduced him to his friends =
as an architect. Ware was "heai'd to tell this stbry while he
v/as sitting- to Roubiliac for his bust. Ware built Chester-
field House and several other noble mansions, and compiled
a Palladio, in folio. : he retained the soot in his skin to the
day of his death. He was very intimate with Roubiliac,
who was an opposite eastern neighbour of Old Slaughter's.
Another architect, Gwynn, who competed with Mylne for
designing and building Blackfriars Bridge;- was also a
frequent visitor at Old Slaughter's, as was Gravelot, who
kept a drawing-school in the Strand, nearly opposite to
Southampton-street.
Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti portraits ; M'Ardell,
the mezzotinto-scraper ; and Luke Sullivan, the engraver of
Hogarth's March to Finchley, also frequented Old Slaugh-
ter's ; likewise Theodore Gardell, the portrait painter, who
was executed for the murder of his landlady ; and Old
Moser, keeper of the Drawing Academy in Peter's-court.
Richard Wilson, the landscape painter, was not a regular
customer here : his favourite house was the Constitution,
Bedford-street, Covent Garden, where he could indulge in a
SLAUGHTERS COFFEE-HOUSE. 355
pot of porter more freely, and enjoy the fun of JMottimer,,
the painter.
Parry, the Welsh harper, though totally blind, was one of
the first draught-players in England, and occasionally played
wth the frequenters of Old Slaughter's; and here, 'in conse-
quence of a bet, Roubiliac introduced Nathaniel Smith
(father of John Thomas), to play at draughts with Parry ;
the game lasted about half an hour : Parry, was much
agitated, and Smith proposed to give in ; but as there were
bets depending, it was played out, and -Smith won. This
victory brought Smith numerous challenges ; and -the d6ns
of the Bam, a public-house, in St. Martin's-lane, nearly
opposite the church, invited him to become a member : but
Smith declined. ■ The Barn, for many years, was frequented
by all the noted players of chess and draughts j and it was
there that they often decided games of the first importance,
played between persons of the highest rank, living in
diflferent parts of the world.
T. Rawle,* the inseparable companion of Captain Grose,
the antiquary, came often to Slaughter's.
It was long asserted of Slaughter's Coffee-house that there
never had been a person of that name as master of the
house, but chat it was named from its having been opened
for the use of the men who slaughtered the cattle for the
butchers of Newport Market, in an open space then adjoin-
* Rawle was one of his Majesty's accoutrement makers ; and after
his death, his effects were 'sold by Hutchins, in King-street, Covent
Garden. Among the lots were a helmet, a sword, and several letters,
of Oliver Cromwell ; also the doublet in which Cromwell dissolved the
Long Parliament. Another singular lot was a large black wig, with
long flowing curls, stated to have been worn by King Charles 11. ; it
was bought by Suett, the actor, who was a great collector of wigs. He
continued to act in this wig for many years, in Tom. Thumb, and other
pieces, tiU it was burnt when the theatre at Birmingham was destroyed
by fire. Next morning, Suett, meeting Mrs. Booth, the mother of the
lively actress S. feooth, exclaimed, "Mrs. Booth, my wig's gone 1"
A A 2
3SS CLVB LIFE OF LONDON,
ing. "This," says J. T. Smith, "may be the fact, if we
believe that coffee was taken as refreshment by slaughtermen,
instead of purl or porter ; or that it was so called by the
neighbouring butchers in derision of the numerous and
fashionable Coffee-houses of the day ; as, for instance, ' The
Old Man's Coffee-house,' and 'The Young Man's Coffee-
house.' Be that as it may, in my father's time, and also
within memory of the most aged people, this Coffee-house
was called ' Old Slaughter's,' and not The Slaughter, or The
Slaughterer's Coffee-house."
In 1827, there was sold by Stewart, Wheatley, and
Adlard, in Piccadilly, a picture attributed to Hogarth, for
150 guineas; it was described A Conversation over a Bowl
of Punch, at Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, in St. Martin's-
lane, and the figures were said to be portraits of the painter,
Dr. Monsey, and the landlord, Old Slaughter. But this
picture, as J. T. Smith shows, was painted by Highmore,
for his father's godfather, Nathaniel Oldham, and one of the
artist's patrons; "it is neither a scene at Old Slaughter's
nor are the portraits rightly described in the sale catalogue,
but a scene at Oldham's house, at Ealing, with an old
schoolmaster, a farmer, the artist Highmore, and Oldham
himself."
Will's and Series Coffee-houses.
At the corner of Serle-street and Portugal-street, most
invitingly facing the passage to Lincoln's Inn New-square,
was Will's, of old repute, and thus described in the " Epi-
cure's Almanack," 1815 : "This is, indubitably, a house of
the first class, which dresses very desirable turtle and
venison, and broaches many a pipe of mature port, double
voyaged Madeira, and princely claret ; wherewithal to wash
down the dust of making law-books, and take out the inky
blots from rotten parchment bonds ; or if we must quote
and parodize Will's ' hath a sweet oblivious antidote which
THE GRECIAN COFFEE-HOUSE. 357
clears the cranium of that perilous stuff that clouds the
cerebellum.'" The Coffee-house has some time been
given up.
Serle's Coffee-house is one of those mentioned in No. 49
of the Spectator : " I do not know that I meet in any of my
walks, objects which move both my spleen and laughter so
effectually as those young fellows at the Grecian, Squire's,
Serle's, and all other Coffee-houses adjacent to the Law,
who rise for no other purpose. but to publish their laziness."
The Grecian Coffee-house,
Devereux-court, Strand, (closed in 1843,) was named from
Constantine, of Threadneedle street, the Grecian who kept
it. In the Tatkr announcement, all accounts of learning
are to be " under the title of the Grecian ;" and, in the
Toiler, No. 6 : " While other parts of the town are amused
with the present actions, [Marlborough's,] we generally spend
the evening at this table [at the Grecian], in inquiries into
antiquity, and think anything new, which gives us new know-
ledge. Thus, we are making a very pleasant entertainment
to ourselves in putting the actions of Homer's Iliad into an
exact journal."
The Spectatoi's face was very well known at the Grecian,
a Coffee-house " adjacent to the law." Occasionally it was
the scene of learned discussion. Thus Dr. King relates
that one evening, two gentlemen, who were constant com-
panions, were disputing here, concerning the accent of a
Greek word. This dispute was carried to such a length, that
the two friends thought proper to determine it with their
swords : for this purpose they stepped into Devereux-court,
where one of them (Dr. King thinks his name was Fitz-
gerald) was run through the body, and died on the spot.
The Grecian was Foote's morning lounge. It was handy,
too, for the young Templar, Goldsmith, and often did it
echo with Oliver's boisterous mirth ; for " it had become
3SS CLUB ni'E OF LONDON.
the favourite^ resort of the Irish and Lancashire Templais,
whom he -delighted in collecting aroundlhim, in ehtertaia-
ing with a cordial and unostentatious hospitality, and/ in
occasionally aniasing with: his. flute, or with whist, neither oi
which he played very well !" Here Goldsmith occasionally
■wound up his " Shoemaker's Holiday " with. supper. . ;,, ,
It was at the Grecian that Fleetwood-Shephard told this
memorable story to Dr. Tancred Robinson, who gave
Richardson permission to repeat it. " The Earl of Dorset
was in Little Britain, beating about for books to his taste ;
there was ' Paradise. Lost.' He was surprised with some
passages he struck upon, dipping here and there and bought
if ; the bookseller begged him to speak in its favour, if he
liked it, for they lay on his handsas waste paper. Jesus ! —
Shephard was present. My Lord took it home, read it, and
sent it to Dryden, who in.a short time returned it. '.'This
man,' says Dryden, ' cuts us all out, and the ancieiits too !'"
The Grecian Was also frequented by Fellows of tlie
Royal Society. Thoresby, in his " Diary," tells us, 22nd
May, 1712, that *' having bought each a. pair of black silk
stockings in Westminster Hall, they returned by water, and
then walked, to meefhis friend, Dr. Sloane, the Secretary of
the Royal Society, at the Grecian Coffee-house, by the
Temple." And, on June lath, same year, "Thoresby
attended the Royal Society, where were present, the Presi-
dent, Sir Isaac Newton, both the Secretaries, the two.
Professors fromOxford, Dr. Halley and; Kell, with others,,
whose compafty we after enjoyed at the Grecian Coffee-
house." '■' • ■■ ■■■ ;..-.., -■
In Devereux-court, also, was Tom's Coffee-house, much
resorted to by men of letters ; among whom; were- Dr. Birch,
who wrote the History of the Royal Society ^ alsoAkenside,
the poet ; and^tliere is in print a letter of Pope's, addressed
to Fortescu'd, his, "counsel learned in the law," at this
Goifee-house. - •
359
George's Coffee-house,
No. 213, Strand, near Temple Bar, was a noted resort in the
last and present century. . When it was a coifee-house, one
day, there came in Sir James Lowther, who after changing
a piece of silver with the coffee-woman, and paying two-
pence for his dish of coffee, was'helped into his chariot, for
he was very lame and iniirm, and went home : some little
time afterwards, he returned to the same coffee-house, on
purpose to acquaint the woman who kept it, that she had
giyen him a bad half-penny, and demanded anofher in
exchange for it. Sir James had about 40,000/. per annum,
and was at a loss whom to appoint his heir.
Shenstone, who found ■
THe warmest welcome at an inn,
found George's to^ be economical., " What do you think,"
he writes, " must be my expense, who love to pry intoevery-
thingpf the kind? Why, truly one shilling. My company
goes to George's Coffee-house, where, for that small sub-
scription . L read all pamphlets under a three shillings'
dimension; and indeed, any larger would not be fit for
coffee-house perusal." Shenstone relates that Lord Orford
was at George's, when the mob, that were carrying his
Lpr4§hip in effigy, came into the box, where he was, tp beg
money- of him, amongst others : this story Horace Walpole
contradict^, ; adding , that he supposes SJienstpne; thought
that after Lord Orford quitted his place, he went to the
co.ffeerhouse to learn news.
Arthur Murphy frequented George's, " where the town
wits met every evening." Lloyd, the law-student, sings : —
By law let others toil to gain renown !
I'^orio's a gentleman, a man o' the town.
He nor courts clients, or the law regarding,
Hurries from Nando's down to Covent Garden,
36o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Yet, he's a scholar ; mark him in the pit,
With critic catcall sound the stops of wit !
Supreme at George's, he harangues the throng.
Censor of style, from tragedy to song.
The Percy Coffee-house,
Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, no longer exists ; but it will
be kept in recollection for its having given name to one of
the most popular publications, of its class in our time,
namely, the " Percy Anecdotes, " by Sholto and Reuben
Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery of Mont
Benger," in 44 parts, commencing in 1820. So said the
title pages, but the names and the locality were suppos'e.
Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerley, who died in 1824; he
was the brother of Sir John Byerley, and the first editor of
the Mirror, commenced by John Limbird, in 1822. Sholto
Percy was Joseph Clinton Robertson, who died in 1852 ;
he was the projector of the Mechanics^ Magazine, which he
edited from its commencement to his death. The name of
the collection of Anecdotes was not taken, as at the time
supposed, from the popularity of the " Percy Reliques," but
from the Percy Coffee-house, where Byerley and Robertson
were accustomed to meet to talk over their joint work. The
idea was, however, claimed by Sir Richard Phillips, who
stoutly maintained that it originated in a suggestion made
by him to Dr. Tilloch and Mr. Mayne, to cut the anecdotes
from the many years' files of the Siar newspaper, of which
Dr. Tilloch was the editor, and Mr. Byerley assistant
editor ; and to the latter overhearing the suggestion, Sir
Richard contested, might the " Percy Anecdotes " be traced.
They were very successful, and a large sum was realised by
the work.
36i
Peele's Coffee-house,
Nos. 177 and 178, Fleet-street, east comer of Fetter-lane,
was one of the Coffee-houses of tlie Johnsonian period ;
and here was long preserved a portrait of Dr. Johnson, on
the key-stone of a chimney-piece, stated to have been painted
by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Peele's Avas noted for files of news-
papers from these dates: Gazette, ij^^; Titnes, 1780;
Morning Chronicle, 1773; Morning Post, 1773; Morning
Herald, 1784; Morning Advertiser, 1794; and the evening
papers from their commencement. The house is now a
tavern.
362
The Taverns of Old London.
The changes in the manners and customs of our metropolis
may be agreea,bly gathered from such. gHmpses as we gain of
the history of " houses of entertainment " in the long lapse
of centuries. , Their records present innumerable, pictures in
little of society and modes, the interest of which is increased
by distance. They show us how the tavern was the great
focus of news long before the newspaper fully supplied the
intellectual want. Much of the business of early times was
transacted in taverns, and it is to some extent in the present
day. According to the age, the tavern reflects the manners,
the social tastes, customs, and recreations j and there, in
days when travelling was difficult and costly, and not unat-
tended with danger, the traveller told his wondrous tale to
many an eager listenerj and the man who rarely strayed
beyond his own parish, was thus made acquainted with the
life of the world. Then, the old tavern combined, with
much of the comfort of an English home, its luxuries, with
out the forethought of providiiig either. Its come-and-go
life presented many a useful lesson to the man who looked
beyond the cheer of the moment. The master, or taverner,
was mostly a person of substance, often of ready wit and
cheerful manners — to render his public home attractive.
The " win-hous," or tavern, is enumerated among the
houses of entertainment in the time of die Saxons ; and no
doubt existed in England much earlier. The peg-tankard,
a specimen of which we see in the Ashmolean Collection at
Oxford, originated with the Saxons j the pegs inside denoted
how deep each guest was to drink : hence arose the saying,
TA VEENS OF OLD LONDON. 363
"lie is a peg too low," when a man was out of- spirits.
-The. Danes -were even more .ctfnvivial , in their hatoits than the
Saxons, and may be presumed to have multiplied the number
of " guest houses," as the early taverns Avere callted. The
Norman followers of the Conqueror soon fell into the good
cheer of their predecessors in England. Although.wine was
made at this period in great abundance from vineyards in
various parts of England, the trade of the taverns was prin-
cipally supplied from France. The- traffic for Bordeaux and
the neighbouring provinces is said to have comnjenced about
1154, through the marriage of Henry II, with Eleanor of Aqui-
taine. The Normans were great carriers, and Guienne the
place whence most of our wines were brdUght j' and which are
described in this reign, to;haye been sold -in the ships; and
in the wine-cellars near the f>ubldc place of cookery, onj the
banks of the Thames. We are now speaking of the. .customs
of seven centuries since ; of which the public wine-cellar,
known to our time as the Shades, adjoining old London
Bridge, was unquestionably a relic.
The earliest dealers in wines were "of two descriptions :
the vintners, or importers 5 and the taverners, who kept
taverns for them, and sold the wine by retail to such_.as
came to the tavern to drink it,: or fetched it to their own
hoitiesi ,i
In a document of the reign of Edward II., we find, men-
tioned a tenement called. Pin TaVern, situated in the Vintry,
where the Bordeaux merchants craned their wines out of
lighters, and other vessels on, _the, Thames ; and here wa$
the famous old tavern with the sign of the Three Cranes.
Chaucer makes the apprentice of this period loving better
the tavern than the shop: —
■ A prentis whilom dwelt in our citee,'— 1 .
At ev'ry bridale- would he siflg-aad hoppe ;
. He loved bet' the tavern than the slioppe,-
For when ther any riding was in Chepe,
Out of the shoppe thider woiild he lepe ;
And til that he had all the sight ysein - - -. ,
And dancid wil, he wold not com agen.
364 CLUB LIFE OF LONDOiV.
Thus, the idle City apprentice was a great tavern haunter,
which was forbidden in his indenture ; and to this day, the ap-
prentice's indenture enacts that he shall not "haunt taverns."
In a play of 1608, the apprentices of old Hobson, a rich
citizen, in 1560, frequent the Rose and Crown, in the
Poultry, and the Dagger, in Cheapside.
Enter Hobson, Two Prentices, and a Bov.
1 Pren. Prithee, fello.v Goodman, set forth the ware, and looke to
the shop a little. I'll but drink a cup of wine with a customer, at the
Rose and Crown in the Poultry, and come again presently.
2 Pren. I must needs step to the Dagger in Cheafic, to send a letter
into the country unto my father. Stay, boy, you are the youngest
prentice ; loolc you to the shop.
In the reign of Richard II., it was ordained by statute
that " the wines of Gascoine, of Osey, and of Spain," as well
as Rhenish wines, should not be sold above sixpence the
gallon ; and the taverners of this period frequently became
very rich, and filled the highest civic offices, as sheriffs and
mayors. The fraternity of vintners and taverners, anciently
the Merchant Wine Tonners of Gascoyne, became the Craft
of Vintners, incorporated by Henry VI. as the Vintners'
Company.
The curious old ballad of " London Lyckpenny," written
in the reign of Henry V., by Lydgate, a monk of Bury,
confirms the statement of the prices in the reign of Richard
II. He comes to Cornhill, when the wine-drawer of the
Pope's Head tavern, standing without the street-door, it
being the custom of drawers thus to waylay passengers,
takes the man by the hand, and says, — "Will you drink a
pint of wine?" whereunto the countryman answers, "A
penny spend I may," and so drank his wine. " For bread
nothing did he pay" — ^for that was given in. This is
Stow's account: the ballad makes the tavemer, not the
drawer, invite the countryman j and the latter, instead of
getting bread for nothing, complains of having to go away
hungry ; —
TA VERNS OF OLD LONDON. 365
The taverner took me by the sleeve,
• " Sir," saith he, " will you our wine assay ?"
I answered, " That cannot much me grieve,
A penny can do no more than it may ;"
I drank a pint, and for it did pay ;
Yet, sore a-hungered from thence I yede,
And, wanting money, I could not speed, etc.
There was no eating at taverns at this time, beyond a
crust to relish the wine ; and he who wished to dine before
he drank, had to go to the cook's.
The furnishing of the Boar's Head, in Eastcheap, with
sack, in Henry IV., is an anachronism of Shakspeare's ; for
the vintners kept neither sacks, muscadels, malmseys,
bastards, alicants, nor any other wines but white and claret,
until 1543. All the other sweet wines before that time
were sold at the apothecaries' shops for no other use but foi
medicine.
Taking it as the picture of a tavern a century later, we
see the alterations which had taken place. The single
drawer or taverner of Lydgate's day is now changed to a
troop of waiters, besides the under skinker, or tapster.
Eating was no longer confined to the cook's row, for we
find in FalstaflPs bill " a capon, 2s. 2d. ; sack, two gallons,
5^. SrtT. ; anchovies and sack, after supper, 2s. bd. ; bread,
one halfpenny." And there were evidently different rooms*
for the guests, as Francisf bids a brother waiter "Look
* This negatives a belief common in our day that a Covent Garden
tavern was the first divided into rooms for guests.
+ A successor of Francis, a waiter at the Boar's Head, in the last
century, had a tablet with an inscription in St. Michael's, Crooked-lane
churchyard, just at the back of the tavern ; setting forth that he died,
"drawer at the Boar's Head Tavern, in Great Eastcheap," and was
noted for his honesty and sobriety ; in that —
Tho' nurs'd among' full hogsheads he defied
The charms of wine, as well as others' pride.
He also practised the singular virtue of drawing good wine and of
366 CLUB- LIFE OF ZONDON.
down in the Pomgranite ;" fof which purpose they had
windows, or loopholes, affording a view from the upper to
the lower apartments. The custom of naming the principal
rooms in taverns and hotels is usual to the present day.
Taverns and wine-bibbing had greatly increased in the
reign of Edward VI., when it was enacted by statute that
no more than %d. a gallon should be taken for any French
wines,; and the consumption limited in private houses to ten
gallons each person yearly ; that there should not be " aiiy
more or great number of .taverns in London of such
tavernes or wine sellers by retaile, above the number of
fouretye tavernes or wyne sellers," being less than two,
■upon an average, to each parish. Nor did this number,
much increase afterwards; for in a return made^to the
Vintners' Company, late in Elizabeth's reign, there were
only one hundred and six'ty-eight taverns in the whole city
and suburbs. . ,
It seems to have been the fashion among old ballad-
mongers, street chroniclers, and journalists, to sing the
praises of the taverns, in rough-shod verse, and that lively
rhyme whiqh, in our day, is termed " patter." Here are a
few specimens, of various periods.
In a black-letter poem of Queen Elizabeth's reign, entitled
"Newes from Bartholomew Fayre," there is this curious
enumeration :
There hath been great sale and utterance of Wine,
Besides Beere, and Ale, aiid Ipocras fine,
In every country, region, and nation,
But chiefly in Billingsgate, at the Salutation ;
And the Boris Head, near London Stone ;
The Swan at Dowgate, a tavern well knowne ;
The Mitel- in Cheape, and then the Bull Head ;
And many like places; that make noses red ;
talcing care to "fill his pots," as appears by the closing lines of the
inscription: — ..
Ye that ori Bacchus have a like dependance,
Pray copy Bob iii measure and attendance.
TA VERWS OF OLD ZVNnON. 367
The Bore's Head in Old Fish-street ; Three Cranes in the Vintry ;
And now, of late, St. Martins in the Sentree ;
The Windmill in Lothbury ; thsShip at th' Exchange ;
King's Head in New Fish-street, where roysterers do range ;
The Mermaid in Cor-nhill ; Red Lion in the Strand ;
Three Tuns in Newgate Market ; Old Fish-street at the Swan.
This enumeration omits ■ the Mourning Bush, adjoining
Aldersgate, containing divers large rooms and lodgings, and
shown in Aggas's plan of London, in 1560. There are also
-omitted The Pope's Head,The London Stone, The Dagger,
The Rose and Crown, ,etc. , Several of the above Signs have
been continued to our time in the very places mentioned ;
but nearly all the original buildings were destroyed in the
Oreat Fire of 1666 ; and the few which escaped have been
rebuilt, or so altered, that their former appearance has
altogether vanished.
The following list of taverns is given by Thomas Hey-
-wood, the author of the fine old play of A Woman killed
iwith Kindness. Heywood, who wrote in 1608, is telling us
what particular houses are frequented by particular classes
of people : —
The Gentry to the King's Head,
The nobles to the Crown,
The Knights unto the Golden Fleece,
And to the Plough the Clown.
The churchman to the Mitre,
The shepherd to the Star,
The gardener hies him to the Rose,
To the Drum the man of war ;
To the Feathers, ladies youj the Globe
The seaman doth not scorn ;
The usurer to the Devil, and
The townsman to the Horn.
The huntsman to the White Hart,
To the Ship the merchants go,
But you who do the Muses love.
The sign called River Po.
The banquerout to the World's End,
The fool to the Fortune Pie,
368 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Unto the Month the oyster-wife,
The fiddler to the Pie,
The punk unto the Cockatrice,
The drunkard to the Vine,
The beggar to the Bush, then meet.
And with Duke Humphrey dine.
In the "British Apollo" of 1710, is the following dog-
grel :—
I'm amused at the signs.
As I pass through the town.
To see the odd mixture—
A Magpie and Crown,
The Whale and the Crow,
The Razor and the Hen,
The Leg and Seven Stars,
The Axe and the Bottle,
The Tun and the Lut^
The Eagle and Child,
The Shovel and Boot.
In " Look about You," 1600, we read that " the drawers
kept sugar folded up in paper, ready for those who called
for sack/" and we further find in another old tract, that the
custom existed of bringing two cups of silva- in case the
wine should be wanted diluted; and this was done by
rose-water and sugar, generally about a pennyworth. A
sharper in the Bell/nan of London, described as having
decoyed a countryman to a tavern, " calls for two pintes of
sundry wines, the drawer setting the wine with two cups, as
the custome is, the sharper tastes of one pinte, no matter
which, and finds fault with the wine, saying ' 'tis too hard,
but rose-water and sugar would send it downe merrily' — and
for that purpose takes up one of the cups, telling the
stranger he is well acquainted with the boy at the barre,
and can have two-pennyworth of rose-water for a penny of
him : and so steps from his seate : the stranger suspects no
harme, because the fawne guest leaves his cloake at the end
of the table behind him, — ^but the other takes good care
not to return, and it is then found that he hath stolen
The Tabard Inn.
(From Urry's Chaucer.)
The Tabard Inn in 1780.
TA VERNS OF OLD L ONDON. 369
ground, and out-leaped the stranger more feet than he can
recover in haste, for the cup is leaped with him, for which
the wood-cock, that is taken in the springe, must pay fifty
shillings, or three pounds, and hath nothing but an old
threadbare cloake not worth two groats to make amends for
his losses."
Bishop Earle, who wrote in the first half of the seven-
teenth century, has left this "character" of a tavern of his
time. " A tavern is a degree, or (if you will) a pair of
stairs above an alehouse, where men are drunk with more
credit and apology. If the vintner's nose be at the door, it
is a sign sufficient, but the absence of this is supplied by the
ivy-bush. It is a broacher of more news than hogsheads
and more jests than news, which are sucked up here by
some spungy brain, and from thence squeezed into a
comedy. Men come here to make merry, but indeed make
a noise, and this music above is answered with a clinking
below. The drawers are the civilest people in it, men of
good bringing up, and howsoever we esteem them, none can
boast more justly of their high calling. 'Tis the best theatre
of natures, where they are truly acted, not played, and the
business as in the rest of the world up and down, to wit,
from the bottom of the cellar to the great chamber. A
melancholy man would find here matter to work upon, to
see heads, as brittle as glasses, and often broken ; men come
hither to quarrel, and come here to be made friends ; and if
Plutarch will lend me his simile, it is even Telephus's sword
that makes wounds, and cures them. It is the common
consumption of the afternoon, and the murderer or the
maker away of a rainy day. It is the torrid zone that
scorches the face, and tobacco the gunpowder that blows it
up. Much harm would be done if the charitable vintner
had not water ready for the flames. A house of sin you
may call it, but not a house of darkness, for the candles are
never out ; and it is like those countries, far in the north,
where it is as clear at midnight as at mid-day. After a
B B
370 . CLUB LIFE OF LONDOlf.
long fitting it, becomes like a street in a dashing shpwer,
where the spouts are flushing above, and the conduits
ruinniiig below, etc. To give you the total reckoning of. it,
it is the busy man's recreation, the idle man's business; the
melancholy man's sanctuary, the stranger's welcorne, the
inns-of-court man's entertainment, the scholar's kindness,
und the citizen's courtesy. '. It is the. study of sparkling vsfits,
and a cup of comedy their book, whence we leave them."
The conjunction of vintner and victualler had now become
common, and would require other accommodation than
those mentioned by the Bishop, as is shown in Massinger's
New Way to pay Old Debts, where Justice Greedy makes
Tapwell's keeping no victuals in his house as an excuse for
pulling down. his sign :
Thou never hadst in thy house to stay men's stomachs,
A piece of SuffoUccheese, or gammon of bacon.
Or any esculent as; the learned call jt, ,
For iheir emolument, but shea' drin\ only.
For which gross fault I here do damn thy licence.
Forbidding thee henceforth to tap or draw ; - '
"For instantly I will in mine own person
Command the constable to pull down thy sign,
And dq't before I eat.
And the decayed vintner, who afterwards applies to Well-
born for payment' of his tavern score, answers, on his
inquiring who he is :
'. A decay 'd vintner, sir,
c , -. i^{ might have thriv'd, but that your Worship broke- me
With trusfing you with muscadine and eggs, . ■
AnA Jive pound sappers, with your after-firinki^gSj
. When you lodged, upon the Bankside. . ,
Dekker tells us, near this 'time, of regular prdin^es of
three kinds ■ ist. An ordinary of the longest; reckonbg,
whither :most of your courtly gallants do resort: ,2nd. A
twelvepenny ordinary, frequented by the, justice pf the peace,
a ybiing Knight ; and a threepenny ordinary, to which, your
London usurer, your stale bachelor, and your thrifty attorney
TAVEkNS OF OLD LONDON. ■yft
doth resort. Then Dekker tells us of a custom, especially
in the City, to send presents of wine from one room to
another, as a complimentary mark of friendship. " Inquire,"
directs he, " what gallants sup in the next room ; and if
they be of your acquaintance, do not, after the City fashion,
send them in a pottle of wine and your name." Then, we
read of Master Brook sending to the Castle Inn, at Windsor,
a morning draught of sack.
Ned Ward, in the " London Spy," i yog, describes several
famous taverns, and among them the Rose, anciently the
Rose and Crown, as famous for good wine. "There was
no parting," he says, " without a glass ; so we went into the
Rose Tavern in the Poultry, where the wine, according to
its merit, had justly gained a reputation ; and there, in a
snug room, warmed with brash and faggot, over a quart of
good claret, we laughed over our nighf s adventure."
" From hence,/ pursuant to my friend's inclination, we
adjourned to the sign of the Angel, in Fenchurch-street,
■ where the vintner, like a double-dealing citizen, condescended
as well to draw carman's comfort as the consolatory juice of
the vine. • . •
" Having at the King's Head well freighted the hold of
our vessels with excellent food and delicious wine, at a small
expense, we scribbled the following lines with chalk, upon
the wall." (See page 350.)
The tapster was a male vendor, not " a woman who had
the c^re of thetap," as Tyrwbitt states. In the 17th century
ballad, The Times, occurs :
The bar-boyes and the tapsters
Leave drawing of their beere, -
And running forth in haste they cry,
• - " See, where Mull'd Sack comes here !"'■
The ancient drawers and tapsters were now, superseded
by the barmaid, and a number of waiters : Ward describes
the barmaid as " all ribboS, lace, and feathers, and making
such a noise with her bell and her tongue together, that had
B B 2
372 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
half-a-dozen paper-mills been at work within three yards oi
her, they'd have signified no more to her clamorous voice
than so many lutes to a drum, which alarmed two or three
nimble fellows aloft, who shot themselves downstairs with
as much celerity as a mountebank's Mercury upon a
rope from the top of a church-steeple, every one charged
with a mouthful of coming, coming, coming.'' The bar-
maid (generally the vintner's daughter) is described as
" bred at the dancing-school, becoming a bar well, stepping
a minuet finely, playing sweetly on the virginals, 'John
come kiss me now, now, now,' and as proud as she was
handsome."
Tom Brown sketches a flirting barmaid of the same time,
" as a fine lady that stood pulling a rope, and screaming like
a peacock against rainy weather, pinned up by herself in
a little pew, all people bowing to her as they passed by,
as if she was a goddess set up to be worshipped, armed with
the chalk and sponge, (which are the principal badges that
belong to that honourable station you beheld her in,) was
the barmaid."
Of the nimbleness of the waiters. Ward says in another
place — "That the chief use he saw in the Monument was,
for the improvement of vintners' boys and drawers, who
came every week to exercise their supporters, and learn the
tavern trip, by running up to the balcony and down again."
Owen Swan, at the Black Swan Tavern, Bartholomew
Lane, is thus apostrophized by Tom Brown for the goodness
of his wine : —
Thee, Owen, since the God of wme has made
Thee steward of the gay carousing trade.
Whose art decaying nature still supplies,
Warms the feint pulse, and sparkles in our eyes.
Be bountiful like him, bring t'other _/?iU/{,
Were the stairs wider we would have the hask.
'' ■'■ This pow'r we from the God of wine derive, '
""■ Draw such as this, and I'll pronounce thou'lt live. ; '
373
The Bear at the Bridge Foot.
This celebrated tavern, situated in Southwark, on the west
side of the foot of London Bridge, opposite the end of St.
Olave's, or Tooley-street, was a house of considerable
antiquity. We read in the accounts of the Steward of Sir
John Howard, March 6th, 1463-4 (Edward IV.), " Item,
payd for red wyn at the Bere in Southwerke, ujd" Garrard,
in a letter to Lord Strafford, dated 1633, intimates that " all
back-doors to taverns on the Thames are commanded to be
shut up, only the Bear at Bridge Foot is exempted, by reason
of the passage to Greenwich," which Mr. Burn suspects to
have been " the avenue or way called Bear Alley."
The Cavaliers' Ballad on the funeral pageant of Admiral
Deane, killed June 2nd, 1653, while passing by water to
Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, has the following
allusion : —
From Greenwich towards the Bear at Bridge foot.
He was wafted with wind that had water to't,
But I think they brought the devil to boot,
Which nobody can deny.
Pepys was told by a waterman, going through the bridge,
24th Feb. 1666-7, that the mistress of the Beare Tavern, at
the Bridge-foot, " did lately fling herself into the Thames,
and drown herself."
The Bear must have been a characterless house, for among
its gallantries was the following, told by Wycherley to Major
Pack, "just for the oddness of the thing." It was this:
"There was a house at the Bridge Foot where persons of
better condition used to resort for pleasure and privacy. The
liquor the ladies and their lovers used to drink at these meet-
ings was canary ; and among other compliments the gentle-
men paid their mistresses, this it seems was always one, to
take hold of the bottom of their smocks, and pouring the wine
374 CLUB LIFE QF LONDON.
through that filter, feast their imaginations with the thought
of what gave the zesto, and so drink a health to the toast."
The Bear Tavern was taken down in December, 1761,
when the labourers found gold and silver coins, of the time
of Elizabeth, to a considerable value. The wall that enclosed
the tavern was not cleared away until 1764, when the ground
was cleared and levelled quite up to Pepper Alley stairs.
There is a Token of the Bear Tavern, in the Beaufroy
cabinet, which, with other rare Southwark tokens, was found
under the floors in taking down St. Glave's Grammar School
in 1839.
Mermaid Taverns..
The celebrated Mermaid, in Bread-street, with the history
of " the Mermaid Club," has been described in pp. 7-9 ; its
interest centres in this famous company of wits.
There was another Mermaid, in Cheapside, next to Paul's
Gate, and still another in Cornhill. Of the latter we find in
Bum's Beaufoy Catalogue, that the vintner, buried in St.
Peter's, Cornhill, in 1606, "gave forty shillings yearly to the
parson for preaching four sermons every year, so long as the
lease of the Mermaid, in Cornhill, (the tavern so called,)
should endure. He also gave to the poor of the said parish
thirteen penny loaves every Sunday, during the aforesaid
ease." There are tokens of both; these taverns in the
Beaufoy Collection.
The Boar's Head Tavern.
This celebrated Shakspearean tavern was situated in Great
Eastcheap, and is first mentioned in the time of Richard II.' ;
the scene of the revels of Falstaff and Henry V., when
Prmce of- Wales, in Shakspeare's Henry IV., part 2. Stow
relates a riot in " the cooks' dwellings " here on St. John's
eve, 1410, by Princes John and Thomas. The tavern was
destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but was rebuilt in two
THE BOARS HEAD TAVERN. i%.
fears, as attested by a boar's head cut ifi stone, with the
initials of the landlord, I.T., and the date 1668, above the
first-floor window; this sign-stofie is now in the Guildhall
library. The house stood ' between •Small-alley and St.
Michael* s-lane, and in the rear looked upon St. Michd,ers
churchyard, where was buried a drawer, or -waiteii", at the
tavern, d. 1720 : in the church was interred John Rhodbway,
" Vintner at the Bore's Head," 16^3.
Maitland,. in 1739, mentions the Boar's Head, as "the
chief tavern in London ", under, the sign. Goldsmith
("Essays"), Boswell ("Life of Dr. Johnson"), and Washing-
ton Irving ("Sketch-book"), have idealized' the house as
the identical place which Falstaff frequented, forgetting its
destruction in the Great Fire. The site of the Boar's Head
is very nearly that of the statue of King William IV.
in 1834; Mr. Kempe, F.S.A., exhibited to the Society of
Attticjuaries a carved oak figure of Sir John Falstaflf, in the
costume of the ■ i6th century; it had supported 'an orna-
mental bracket dver one side of the door of the Boar's Head,
a figure of Prince Henry sustaining -that on the other. ■ The '
Falstaff was the property of one Shelton, a brazier,- whose an-
cestors had lived in the shop he then occupied in Great
Eastcheap, since the Great Fire. He well remembered the
last Shakspeareaii grand dinner-party at the Boar's Head,
about 1784 :' at an earlier partyi Mr. Wilberforee was pre-
sent. A boar's head, with tusks, which had been suspended
in a room of the tavern, perhaps the Half-Moon or Pome-
granate, (see Henry IV; act il sc. 4,) at the Great Fire, fell
■down with ' the ruins of the house, and was conveyed to
Whitechapel Mount, wh'ei-e, many years- after, it was re-
covered, and identified with its former locality. At a
pnblic house,' No, 12, Miles-lane, was long preserv'ed a
tobacco-box, with a painting of the original Boar's Head
Tavern on the lid.*
"Curiosities of London," p. 265.
376 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
In High-street, South wark, in the rear of Nos. 25 and 26,
was formerly the Boar's Head Inn, part of Sir John Falstolf's
benefaction to Magdalen College, Oxford. Sir John was
one of the bravest generals in the French wars, under the
fourth, fifth, and sixth Henries ; but he is not the Falstaff of
Shakspeare. In the " Reliquiae Hearnianse," edited by Dr.
Bliss, is the following entry relative to this bequest : —
1721. June 2. — The reason why they cannot give so good an account
of the benefaction of Sir John Fastolf to Magd. Coll. is, because he
gave it to the founder, and left it to his management, so that 'tis sup-
pos'd 'twas swallow'd up in his own estate that he settled it upon the
college. However, the college knows this, that the Boar's Head in
Southwark, which was then an inn, and still retains the name, tho'
divided into several tenements (which bring the college about 150/. per
ann.), was part of Sir John's gift."
The above property was for many years sublet to the
family of the author of the present Work, at the rent of 150/.
per annum ; the cellar, finely vaulted, and excellent for
wine, extended, beneath the entire court, consisting of two
rows of tenements, and two end. houses, with galleries, the
entrance being from the High-street. The premises were
taken down for the New London Bridge approaches. There
was also a noted Boar's Head in Old Fish-street
Can he forget who has read Goldsmith's nineteenth
Essay, his reverie at the Boar's Head ? — when, having con-
fabulated with the landlord till long after " the watchman
had gone twelve," and suffused in the potency of his wine a
mutation in his ideas, of the person of the host into that of
Dame Quickly, mistress of the tavern in the days of Sir John,
is promptly affected, and the Uquor they were drinking seemed
shortly converted into sack and sugar. Mrs. Quickly's re-
cital of the history of herself and Doll Tearsheet, whose
frailties in the flesh caused their being both sent to the
house of correction, charged with having allowed the famed
Boar's Head to become a low brothel; her speedy de-
parture to the world of Spirits ; and Falstaff's impertinences
THREE CRANES IN THE VJNTRY. yjl
as affecting Madame Proserpine; are followed by an enume-
ration of persons who had held tenancy of the house since
her time. The last hostess of note was, according to Gold-
smith's account, Jane Rouse, who, having unfortunately
quarrelled with one of her neighbours, a woman of high re-
pute in the parish for sanctity, but as jealous as Chaucer's
Wife of Bath, was by her accused of witchcraft, taken from
her own bar, condemned and executed accordingly ! — These
were times, indeed, when women could not scold in safety.
These and other prudential apophthegms on the part of
Dame Quickly, seem to have dissolved Goldsmith's stupor
of ideality ; on his awaking, the landlord is really the land-
lord, and not the hostess of a former day, when " Falstaff
was in fact an agreeable old fellow, forgetting age, and
showing the way to be young at sixty-five. Age, care,
wisdom, reflection, begone ! I give you to the winds.
Let's have t'other bottle. Here's to the memory of Shak-
speare, Falstaff, and all the merry men of Eastcheap."*
Three Cranes in the Vintry.
This was one of Ben Jonson's taverns, and has already
been incidentally mentioned. Strype describes it as situate
in "New Queen-street, commonly called the Three Cranes
in the Vintry, a good open street, especially that part next
Cheapside, which is best built and inhabited. At the lowest
end of the street next the Thames, is a pair of stairs, the
usual place for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to take water
at, to go to Westminister Hall, for the new Lord Mayor to be
sworn before the Barons of the Exchequer. This place, with
the Three Cranes, is now of some account for the coster-
mongers, where they have their warehouse for their fruit."
In Scott's " Kenilworth " we hear much of this Tavern.
"Bum's Catalogue of the Beaufoy Tokens.'
37S
London Stone Tavern.
This tavern, situated in CannonrStreet, near the Stone; is ■■
stated, but not correctly, to have been the oldest in London.
Here was formed a society, afterwards the famous Robin
Hood, of which the history was published in 1 716, where it
is stated to have originated in a meeting of the editor's :
grandfather with the great Sir Hugh Myddelton, of New
River memory. King Charles II. was introduced to the
society, disguised, by Sir, Hugh, and the King liked it so
wiell that he came ' thrice afterwards. " He had," coiitinues
the narrative, "a piece of black silk over his left cheek,
which almost' covered it; and his eyebrows, which were
quite black, he had,. by some artifice or other, converted to
alight brown, or rather flaxen colour; and had otherwise
disguised himself so effectually in his apparel and his looks,'
that nobody knew him but Sir Hugh, by whom he was in-
troduced." This is very circumstantial, but is very doubtful ;
since Sir Hugh Myddelton died when Charles was in his
tenth year.
The Robin Hood.
Mr. Akerman- describes a Token of the Robin Hood
Tavern : — " iohn thomlin.son at the. An archer fitting ■
an arrow to his bow; a small figure behind, holding an
arrow. — JBt. in chiswell street, 1667. In the centre, his
HALFE PENNY, and I. s. T. Mr. Akerman continues :
"It is easy to perceive what is intended by the repre-'
senitation on the obverse of this token. Though ' Littie
John,' we are told,' stood upwards of six good English feet
without his shoes, he is here depicted to suit the popular
humour — a dwarf in size, 'compared with his friend and
leader, the bold outlaw. The proximity of Chiswell-street
to Finsbury-fieldS may have led to the adoption of the sign,
which was doubtless at a time when archery was considered
PONTACK'S, ASCHURCH-LANE. 379
an elegant as well as an indispensable accomplishment of
an English gentleman. It is far from obsolete now, as
several low public-houses and beer^shops in the vicinity of
London testify: One of them exhibits Robin Hood and his
companion dressed in the most approved style of ' Astley's,'
and underneath the group is the following irresistible invita-
tion to slake your thirst : —
Ye archers bold and yeomen good,
Stop and drink with Robin Hood :
If Robin Hood is not at home.
Stop and.drink with little John."
" Our London readers could doubtless supply the variorum
copies of this elegant distich^ which, as this is an age for
' Family Shakspeares,' modernized Chaucers, and new ver-
sions of ' Robin , Hood's Garland,' we' recommend to the
notice of the next editor of the ballads in praise of the
Sherwood freebooter."
Pontack'Sj Abchurch Lane.
After the destruction of the White Bear Tavern, in the
Great Fire of 1666, the proximity of the site for all purposes
of business, induced M. Pontack, the son of' the President
of Bordeaux, owner of a famous claret district, to establish a
tavern, with all the novelties of French "cookery, with his
father's head as a sign, whence it was popularly called
"Pontack's Head," The .dinners were from four or five
shillings a head " to a guinea, or what sum you pleased."
.Swift frequented the tavern, and writes to" Stella : —
"Pontack told us, although his wine was so good, he sold it
dieaper than ojtUws J he took but seven shillings a flask.
Are not these pretty rates ?" In the "Hind and Panther
Transversed," we read of drawers : —
Sure these honest fellows have no knack
Of putting off stum'd claret for Pontack.
38o CLUB LIFE OP LONDON.
The Fellows of the Royal Society dined at Pontack's until
1746, when they removed to the Devil Tavern. There is a
Token of the White Bear in the Beaufoy Collection ; and
Mr. Bum tells us, from " Metamorphoses of the Town," a
rare tract, 1731, of Pontack's "guinea ordinary," "ragout
of fatted snails," and " chickens not two hours from the
shell." In January, 1735, Mrs. Susannah Austin, who lately
kept Pontack's, and had acquired a considerable fortune,
was married to William Pepys, banker, in Lombard-street.
Pope's Head Tavern.
This noted tavern, which gave name to Pope's Head
Alley, leading from Cornhill to Lombard-street, is mentioned
as early as the 4th Edward IV. (1464) in the account of a
wager between an Alicant goldsmith and an English gold-
smith ; the Alicant stranger contending in the tavern that
" Englishmen were not so cunning in workmanship of gold-
smithry as Alicant strangers ;'' when work was produced by
both, and the Englishman gained the wager. The tavern
was left in 16 15, by Sir William Craven, to the Merchant
Tailors' Company. Pepys refers to "the fine painted
room" here in 1668-9. I" the tavern, April 14, 1718,
Quin, the actor, killed in self-defence his fellow-comedian,
Bowen, a clever but hot-headed Irishman, who was jealous
of Quin's reputation : in a moment of great anger, he sent
for Quin to the tavern, and as soon as he had entered the
room, Bowen placed his back against the door, drew his
sword, and bade Quin draw his. Quin, having mildly
remonstrated to no purpose, drew in his own defence, and
endeavoured to disarm his antagonist. Bowen received a
wound, of which he died in three days, having acknowledged
his folly and madness, when the loss of blood had reduced
him to reason. Quin was tried and acquitted. (" Cunning-
ham, abridged.") The Pope's Head Tavern was in existence
in 1756.
3Si
The Old Swan, Thames-street,
Was more than five hundred years ago a house for public
entertainment: for, in 1323, 16 Edw. II., Rose Wrytell
bequeathed " the tenement of olde tyme called the Swanne
on the Hope in Thames-street," in the parish of St. Mary-
at-hill, to maintain a priest at the altar of St. Edmund, King
and Martyr, " for her soul, and the souls of her husband,
her father, and mother :" and the purposes of her bequest
were established ; for, in the parish book, in 1499, is entered
a disbursement of fourpence, "for a cresset to Rose
Wrytell's chantry.'' Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Glou-
cester, in 1440, in her public penance for witchcraft and
treason, landed at Old Swan, bearing a large taper, her feet
bare, etc.
Stow, in 1598, mentions the Old Swan as a great brew-
house. Taylor, the Water-poet, advertised the professor
and author of the Barmoodo and Vtopian tongues, dwelling
" at the Old Swanne, neare London Bridge, who will teach
them at are willing to leame, with agility and facility."
In the scurrilous Cavalier ballad of Admiral Deane's
Funeral, by water, from Greenwich to Westminster, in June,
1653, it is said: —
The Old Swan, as he passed by,
Said she would sing him a dirge, lye down and die :
Wilt thou sing to a bit of a body ? quoth I,
Which nobody can deny.
The Old Swan Tavern and its landing-stairs were destroyed
in the Great Fire ; but. rebuilt. Its Token, In the Beaufoy
Collection, is one of the rarest, of large size.
Cock Tavern, Threadneedle-street.
This noted house, which faced the north gate of the old
Royal Exchange, was long celebrated for the excellence of
382 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
its soups, which were served at an economical price, in
silver. One- of its proprietors was, it is believed, John Ellis,
an eccentric character, and a writer of some reputation, who
died in 1791. Eight stanzas addressed to him in praise of
the tavern, commenced thus : —
When to Ellis I write, I in verse must indite,
Come Phoebus, and give me a knock,
For on Friday at eight, all behind " the 'Change gate," :
Master Ellis will be at " The Cock."
After Comparing it to other houses, the Pope's Head, the
King's Arms, the Black Swan, and the Fountain, and de-
claring the Cock the best, it ends :
'Tis time to be gone, for the 'Change has struck one :
O 'tis an impertinent clock ! •
For with Ellis I'd stay from December to May ;
I'll stick to my Friend, and " The Cock !"
This house was taken down in 1841 ; when, in a claim' for
compertsation made by the proprietor,- the trade in three
years was proved to have been 344,720 basins of various
soups — ^viz. 166,240 mock turtle, 3,920 giblet, 59,360 ox-
tail, 31,072 bouilli, 84,1 28 gravy and other soups : sometimes
500 basins of soup were sold in a day.
Crown Tavern, Threadneedle-street.
Upon the site of the present chief entrance to the Bank
of England, in Threadneedle-street, stood the Crown Tavern,
" behind the 'Change :" it was frequented by the Fellows of
the Royal Society, when they met at Gresham College ' hard
by. The Crown was burnt in the Great Fire, but was
rebuilt ; and about a centtiry ' since, at this tavern, " it was
not unusual to draw a butt of mountain wine, containing
\io gallons, in gills, in a morning."—- ^«V John Hawkins.
Behind the 'Change, we read in the Connoisseur, 1754, a
a man worth a plum used to order a twopenny mess of
broth with a boiled chop in it; placing the chop between
; THE KING'S HEAD TA VERN. 583
the two crusts of a halfpenny roll, he would wrap it up in
his clieck handkerchief, and carry it away for the morrow's
dinner.
The King's Head Tavern, in the Poultry.
This Tavern, which stood at the western extremity, of the
Stocks' Market, was not first known by the sign of the
King's Head, but the Rose : Machin, in his Diary, Jan. 5,
1560, thus mentions it: "A gentleman arrested for debt;
Master Cobham, with divers gentlemen and; serving-men,
took him from the officers, and carried him to the -Rose
Tavern, where so great a fray, both the sheriffs were feign to
£ome, and from the Rose Tavern took all the gentlemen
and their servants, and carried them to the Compter."
The house was distiuguished by the device of a large,
well-painted Rose, erected over a doorway, which was the
only indication in the main street otisuch an establishment.
In the superior houses of the metropolis in the sixteenth
century, room was gained in the rear of the stjreet-line, the
space in front being economized, so that the line of .shops
might not be interrupted. Upon this, ,plan, , the larger
taverns in the City were constructed, wherever the ground
was sufficiently spacious behind: hence it was that., the
Poultry tavern of which we are speaking, was approached
.through a long, narrow, covered passage, opening into a
.well-lighted quadrangle, around which were the tavern-rooms.
The sign of the Rose appears to, have been a, costly work,
since there was the fragment of a leaf of an old account-
book preserved, when the ruins of the, house were pleared
after tiie Great Fire, on which were written .these entries : —
*'Pd. to Hoggestreete, tiie Duche Paynter, for y" Picture of
a Rose, w*" a Standing-bowle and (glasses, for a.Signe, %xli.
besides Diners and Drinkings. Also, for a large Table of
Walnut-tree, for a .Frame ; and for liron-worke and Hanging
■the Picture, v/«," The artist who is ireferred to. in this
3S4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
memorandum, could be no other than Samuel Van Hoog-
straten, a painter of the middle of the seventeenth century,
whose works in England are very rare. He was one of the
many excellent artists of the period, who, as Walpole
contemptuously says, " painted still-life, oranges and lemons,
plate, damask curtains, cloth of gold, and that medley of
familiar objects that strike the ignorant vulgar."
But, beside the claims of the painter, the sign of the Rose
cost the worthy tavemkeeper a still further outlay, in the
form of divers treatings and advances made to a certain
rather loose man of letters of his acquaintance, possessed of
more wit than money, and of more convivial loyalty than
either discretion or principle. Master Roger Blythe fre-
quently patronized the Rose Tavern as his favourite
ordinary. Like Falstaff, he was " an infinite thing " upon
his host's score ; and, like his prototype also, there was no
probability of his ever discharging the account. When the
Tavern-sign was about to be erected, this Master Blythe
contributed the poetry to it, after the fashion of the time,
which he swore was the envy of all the Rose Taverns in
London, and of all the poets who frequented them.
" There's your Rose at Temple Bar, and your Rose in
Covent Garden, and the Rose in Southwark : all of thera
indifferent good for wits, and for drawing neat wines too ;
but, smite me. Master King," he would say, " if I know one
of them all fit to be set in the same hemisphere with yours !
No ! for a bountiful host, a most sweet mistress, unsophisti-
cated wines, honest measures, a choicely painted sign, and a
witty verse to set it off withal, — commend me to the Rose
Tavern in the Poultry !"
Even the tavern-door exhibited a joyous frontispiece;
since the entrance was flanked by two columns twisted with
vines carved in wood, which supported a small square
gallery over the portico surrounded by handsome iron-work.
On the front of this gallery was erected the sign, in a frame
of similar ornaments. It consisted of a central compart.
THE KINGS HEAD TA VERN. 385
ment containing the Rose, behind which appeared a tall
silver cup, called in the language of the time " a standmg-
bowl," with drinking-glasses. Beneath the painting was this
inscription ; —
THIS IS
THE ROSE TA VERNE
IN THE POULTREY :
KEPT BY
WILLIAM KING,
Citizen and Vintner.
This Taveme's like its Signe — a lustie Rose,
A sight of joy that sweetness doth enclose :
The daintie Flow're well-pictur'd here is seene,
But for its rarest sweetes — Come, Searche Within !
The authorities of St. Peter-upon-Comhill soon deter-
mined, on the loth of May, 1660, in Vestry, "that the
King's Arms, in painted-glass, should be refreshed, and
forthwith be set up by the Churchwarden at the parish-
charges j with whatsoever he giveth to the glazier as a
gratuity, for his care in keeping of them all this while."
The host of the Rose resolved at once to add a Crown to
his sign, with the portrait of Charles, wearing it in the centre
of the flower, and openly to name his tavern " The Royal
Rose and King's Head." He effected his design, partly by
the aid of one of the many excellent pencils which the time
supplied, and partly by the inventive muse of Master
Blythe, which soon furnished him with a new poesy. There
is not any fiirther information extant concerning the paint-
ing, but the following remains of an entry on another torn
fragment of the old account-book already mentioned, seem
to refer to the poetical inscription beneath the picture :-^
. ..." on y' Night when he made y' Verses for my new
Signe, a Sqper, and v. Peeces." The verses themselves were
as follow : —
Gallants, Rejoice ! — This Flow're is now fuU-blowne ;
'Tis a Rose-Noble better'd by a Crowne ;
All you who love the Embleme and the Signe,
Enter, and prove our Loyaltie and Wine.
c c
386 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Beside this inscription, Master King also recorded the
auspicious event referred to, by causing his painter to
introduce ii\to the picture a broad-sheet, as if lying on the
table with the cup and glasses — on which appeared the title,
"A Kalendar for this Happy Yeare of Restauratioit, 1660,
now newly Imprinted."
As the time advanced when Charles was to make his
entry into the metropolis, the streets were resounding with
the voices of ballad-singers pouring- forth loyal songs, and
declaring, with the whole strength of their lungs, that
The King shall enjoy his own again.
Then, there were also to be heard, the ceaseless horns and
proclamations of hawkers and. flying-station ers^ publishing
the latest passages or rumours touching the royal progress ;
which, wheither genuine or not, were bought and read, and
circulated, by all parties. At length all ' the previous
pamphlets and broad-sheets were swallowed up by a well-
known tract, still extant, which the news-men of the time
thiis proclaimed :— " Here is A True Accompt and Narra-
tive — of his Majesties safe Arrival in England^as 'twas
reported to the House of Commons, on Friday, the 'z^th day
of this present May^-with the Resolutions of both Houses
thereupon : — Also a Letter very lately writ from Dover —
relating -divers remarkable Passages of his Majesties Recep-
tion there."
On eveiy side the signs and iron-work were either
refreshed, or newly gilt and painted : tapestries and rich
hangings, which had engendered moth and decay from long
disuse, were flung abroad again, that they might be ready
to grace the coming pageant. The paving of the streets
was levelled and repaired for the expected cavalcade ; and
scaffolds for spectators were in the course df erection
throughout all the line of march. Floods of all sorts of
wines were consumed, as well in the streets as in the
THE KING'S HEAD TA VERN. 387
taverns ; and endless healths were devotedly and energeti-
cally swallowed, at morning, noon, and night.
At this time Mistress Rebecca King was about to add
another member to Master King's household :, she received
from hour to hour accounts of the proceedings as they
occurred, which so stimulated her curiosity that she declared,
first to her gossips, and then to her husband, that she "must see
the King pass the tavern^ or matters might go cross with her."
A kind of arbour was inade for Mistress Rebecca in the
small iron gallery surmounting the entrance to the tavern.
This arbour was of green boughs and flowers, hung round
with tapestry and garnished with silver plate; and here,
when the guns at the Tower announced that Charles had
entered London, Mistress King took her seat, with her
children and gossips around her. AH the houses in the
main streets from London-bridge to Whitehall were deco-
rated, like the tavern, with rich silks and tapestries, hung
from every scaffold, balcony, and window; which, as
Herrick says, turned the town into a park, "made green
and trimmed with boughs." The road through London, so
far as Temple-Bar, was lined on the north side by the City
Companies, dressed in their liveries, and raeged in their
respective stands, with ttheir banners ; and on the south by
the soldiers of the trained-bands.
One of the wine conduits stood on the south side of the
Stocks' Market, over which Sir Robert Yiner . subsequerltly
erected a triumphal statue of Charles II. Aboiit this spot;
therefore,' the crowd collected in the Market-place, aided by
the fierce loyalty supplied from the conduit, appears for a
time to have brought the procession to a full stop, at the
moment when- Charles, who; rode between his brothers, the
Dukes of York and Gloucester, was nearly opposite to the
newly-named King's Head Tavern. In- this most favourable
interval. Master Blythe, who stood upon a scaffold in the
doorway, took the opportunity of elevating a silver cup of
wine and shouting oUt a health to his Majesty. His ener-
c C 2
388 CLUB l-IFE OF LONDON.
getical action, as he pointed upwards to the gallery, was not
lost ; and the Duke of Buckingham, who rode immediately
before the King witn General Monk, directed Charles's
attention to Mistress Rebecca, saying, "Your Majesty's
retimi is here welcomed even by a subject as yet unborn."
As the procession passed by the door of the King's Head
Tavern, the King turned towards it, raised himself in his
stirrups, and gracefully kissed his hand to Mistress Rebecca.
Immediately such a shout was raised from all who beheld it
or heard of it, as startled the crowd up to Cheapside con-
duit; and threw the poor woman herself into such an
ecstasy, that she was not conscious of anything more, until
she was safe in her chamber and all danger happily over.*
The Tavern was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and flourished
many years. It was long a depot in the metropolis for turtle;
and in the quadrangle of the Tavern might be seen scores of
turtle, large and lively, in huge tanks of water ; or laid up-
ward on the stone floor, ready for their destination. The
Tavern was also noted for large dinners of the City Com-
panies and other public bodies. The house was refitted in
1852, but has since been closed.
Another noted Poultry Tavern was the Three Cranes,
destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt, and noticed in 1698,
in one of the many paper controversies of that day. A ful-
minating pamphlet, entitled "Ecclesia etFactio: a Dialogue
between Bow Church Steeple and the Exchange Grass-
hopper," elicited " An Answer to the Dragon and Grass-
hopper: in a Dialogue between an Old Monkey and a
Yoimg Weasel, at the Three Cranes Tavern, in the Poultry."
The Mitre, in Wood- street.
Was a noted old Tavern. Pepys, in his " Diary," Sept 18,
1660. records his going "to the Mitre Tavern, in Wood-
* Abridged from an Account of the Tavern, by an Antiquary.
THE SALUTA TION AND CA T TA VERN. 389
street, (a house of the greatest note in London,) where I
met W. Symons, D. Scoball, and their wives. Here some of
us fell to handicap, a sport I never knew before, which was
very good." The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire.
The Salutation and Cat Tavern,
No. 17, Newgate-street (north side), was, according to the
tradition of the house, the tavern where Sir Christopher
Wren used to smoke his pipe, whilst St. Paul's was re-
building. There is more positive evidence of its being a
place well frequented by men of letters at the above period.
Thus, there exists a poetical invitation to a social feast held
here on June 19, 1735-6, issued by the two stewards,
Edward Cave and William Bowyer :
Saturday, Jan. 17, 1735-6.
Sir,
You're desir'd on Monday next to meet
At Salutation Tavern, Newgate-street.
Supper will be on table just at eight,
\Stewards\ One of St. John's [Bowyer], 'tother of St. John's
Gate [Cave].
This brought a poetical answer from Samuel Richardson
the novelist, printed in extenso in Bowyer's " Anecdotes :"
For me, I'm much concerned I cannot meet
"At Salutation Tavern, Newgate-street,"
Your notice, like your verse, so sweet and short I
If longer, I'd sincerely thank you for it.
Howe'er, receive my wishes, sons of verse !
May every man who meets, your praise rehearse !
May mirth, as plenty, crown your cheerful board.
And e'vry one part happy — as a lord !
That when at home (by such sweet verses fir'd).
Your families may think you all inspir'd.
So wishes he, who pre-engag' d, can't know
The pleasures that would from your meeting flow.
The proper sign is the Salutation and Cat, — a curious
combination, but one which is explained by a lithograph
390 CLUB LIFE OF, LONDON.
which some years ago hung in the coffee-room. An aged
dandy is saluting a friend whom he has met in the street,
and offering him a pinch out of the snuff-box which forms
the top of his wood-hke cane. This box-nob was, it appears,
called a " cat " — hence the connexion of terms apparently
so foreign to each other. Some, not aware of this explana-
tion, have accounted for the sign by supposing that a tavern
called " the Cat " was at some time pulled down, and its
trade carried to the Salutation, which thenceforward joined
the sign to its own ; but this is improbable, seeing that we
have never heard of any tavern called " the Cat " (although
we i/i7 know of "the Barking Dogs ") as a sign. Neither
does the Salutation take its name from any scriptural or
sacred source, as the Angel and Trumpets, etc.
More positive evidence there is to show of the "little
smoky room at the Salutation and Cat," where Coleridge and
Charles Lamb sat smoking Oronoko and drinking egg-hot;
the first discoursing of his. idol, Bowles, and the other re-
joicing mildly in Cowper and Burns, or both dreaming of
" Pantisocracy, and golden days to come on earth."
" Salutation " Taverns.
The sign Salutation, from scriptural or sacred source,
remains to be explained. Mr. Akerman suspects the original
sign to have really represented the Salutation of the Virgin
by the TVngel — " Ave Maria, gratia plena " — a well-known
legend on the jettons of the Middle Ages. The change of
representation was properly accommodated to the times.
The taverns at that period were the " gossiping shops " of
the neighbourhood ; and both Puritan and Churchman fre-
quented them for the sake of hearing the news. The Puritans
loved the good things of this world, and relished a cup of
Canary, or Noll's nose lied, holding the maxim —
Though the devil trepan
The Adamical man,
The saint 'stands uninfected.
QUEEN'S ARMS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. 391
Hence, perhaps, the Salutation of the Virgin was ex-
changed for the "booin' and scrapin'"- scene (two men bowing
and greeting), represented on a token which still exists ; the
tavern was celebrated in the days of Queen Elizabeth. In
some old black-letter doggrel, entitled "News from Bar-
tholemew Fayre," it is mentioned for wine : —
There hath been great sale and utterance' of wine,
Besides beere, and ale, and Ipocras fine ;
In every country, region, and nation.
But chiefly in fiilhngsgate, at the Salutation.
The Flower-pot was originally part of the symbol of the
Annunciation to the Virgin.
Queen's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard.
Garrick appears to have kept up his interest in the city by
means of clubs, to which he paid periodicar visits. We have
'already mentioned the club of young merchants, at Tom's
Coffee-house, in Coirrihill. 'Another Club was held at the
Queen's Arms Tavern, in St. Paul's Churchyard, where used
to assemble : Mr. Samuel Sharpe, the surgeon ; Mr. Pater-
son, the City- solicitor ; Mr. Draper, the bookseller ; Mr.
Clutterbuck, the mercer j and a few others.
Sir John Hawkins tells us that " they were none of them
drinkers, and in order to make a reckoning, called only for
French wine." These were Garrick's standing council in
theatrical affairs.
At the Queen's Arms, after a thirty years' intei-val, Johnson
renewed his intimacy with some of the members of his old
Ivy-lane Club.
Brasbridge, the old silversmith of Fleet-street, was a
member of the Sixpenny Card-Club held at the Queen's
Arms : among the members was Henry Baldwyn, who,
under the auspices of Bonnel Thornton, Colman the
elder, and Garrick, set up the Si. James's Chronicle, which
once had the largest circulation of any evening paper. This
392 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
worthy newspaper-proprietor was considerate and generous
to men of genius : " Often," says Brasbridge, " at his hospi-
table board I have seen needy authors, and others con-
nected with his employment, whose abilities, ill-requited as
they might have been by the world in general, were by him
always appreciated." Among Brasbridge's acquaintance,
also, were John Walker, shopman to a grocer and chandler
in Well-street, Ragfair, who died worth 200,000/., most
assuredly not gained by lending money on doubtful security ;
and Ben Kenton, brought up at a charity-school, and who
realised 300,000/., partly at the Magpie and Crown in
Whitechapel.
Dolly's, Paternoster Row.
This noted Tavern, established in the reign of Queen
Anne, has for its sign, the cook Dolly, who is stated to
have been painted by Gainsborough. It is still a well-
appointed chop-house and tavern, and the coffee-room with
its projecting fire-places, has an olden air. Nearly on the site
of Dolly's, Tarlton, Queen Elizabeth's favourite stage-clown,
kept an ordinary, with the sign of the Castle. The house,
of which a token exists, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but
was rebuilt ; there the " Castle Society of Music " gave their
performances. Part of the old premises were subsequently
the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in 1822, and
rebuilt.
The entrance to the chop-house is in Queen's Head
passage ; and at Dolly's is a window-pane painted with the
head of Queen Anne, which may explain the name of the
court.
At Dolly's and Horsman's beef-steaks were eaten with
gill-ale.
393
Aldersgate Taverns.
Two early houses of entertainment in Aldersgate were the
Taborer's Inn and the Crown. Of the former, stated to
have been of the time of Edward II., we know nothing but
the name. The Crown, more recent, stood at the end of
Duck-lane, and is described in Ward's " London Spy," as
containing a noble room, painted by Fuller, with the Muses,
the Judgment of Paris, the contention of Ajax and Ulysses,
etc. "We were conducted by the jolly master,'' says Ward,
" a true kinsman of the bacchanalian family, into a large
stately room, where, at the first entrance, I discerned the
master-strokes of the famed Fuller's pencil ; the whole room
painted by that commanding hand, that his dead figures
appeared with such lively majesty that they begat reverence
in the spectators towards the awful shadows. We accord-
ingly bade the complaisant waiter oblige us with a quart of
his richest claret, such as was fit only to be drank in the
presence of such heroes, into whose company he had done
us the honour to introduce us. He thereupon gave direc-
tions to his drawer, who returned Avith a quart of such
inspiring juice, that we thought ourselves translated into one
of the houses of the heavens, and were there drinking
immortal nectar with the gods and goddesses :
Who could such blessings when thus found resign ?
An honest vintner faithful to the vine ;
A spacious room, good paintings, and good wine.
Far more celebrated was the Mourning Bush Tavern, in
the cellars of which have been traced the massive founda
tions of Aldersgate, and the portion of the City Wall which
adjoins them. This tavern, one of the largest and most
ancient in London, has a curious history.
The Bush Tavern, its original name, took for its sign the
394 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Ivy-hush hung up at the door. It is believed to have been
the house referred to by ,Stowe, as follows :— "This gate
(Aldersgate) hath been at sundry times increased with build-
ing ; namely, on the south Or inner side, a great frame of
timber, (or house of wood lathed and plastered,) hath
been added and set up containing divers large rooms
and lodgings," which were an enlargement of the Bush.
Fosbroke mentions the Bush as the chief sign of taverns in
the Middle AgeSj (it being ready to hand,) and so it con-
tinued until superseded by "a thing to resemble one
containing three or four tiers of hoops fastened one above
another with vine leaves and grapes richly carved and gilt."
He adds : " the owner of the Mourning Bush, Aldersgate,
was so affected at the decollation of Charles I,, that he
painted his bush black." From this period the house is
scarcely mentioned until the year 1719, when- we find ifs
name changed to the Fountain, whether from political feel-
ing against the then exiled House of Stuart, or the whim of
the proprietor we cannot learn ; though it is thought to have
reference to a spring on the east side of the gate. Tom
Brown mentions the Fountain satirically, with four or five
topping taverns of the day, whose landlords are charged
with doctoring their wines, but whose trade was so great
that they stood fair for the Alderman's gown. And, in a
letter from an old vintner in the city to one newly set up in
Covent Garden, we find the following in the way of advice :
" as all the world are wholly supported by hard and unintel-
ligible names, you must take care to christen your wines by
some hard name, the further fetched so much the better, and
this policy will serve to recommend the most execrable
scum in your cellar. I could name several of our brethren
to you, who now stand fair to sit in the seat of justice, and
sleep in their golden chain at churches, that had been for^ ed
to knock off long ago, if it had not been for this artifice. It
saved the Sun from being eclipsed ; the Crown from being
abdicated; the Rose from decaying; and the Fountain
JERUSALEM TAVERNS, CLERKENWELL. 395
from being dry; as well as both the Devils from being
confined to utter darkness."
Twenty years later, in a large plan of Aldersgate Ward,
1739-40, we find the Fountain changed to the original Bush.
The Fire of London had evidently, at this time, curtailed
the ancient extent of the tavern. The exterior is shown in a
print of the south side of Aldersgate ; it has the character of
the larger houses, built after the Great Fire, and immediately
adjoins the gate. The last notice of the Bush, as a place of
entertainment, occurs in Maitland's " History of London,"
ed. 172s, where it is described as " the Fountain, commonly
called the Mourning Bush, which has a back-door into St.
Anne's-lane, and is situated near unto Aldersgate." The
house was refitted in 1830. In the basement are the
original wine-vaults of the old Bush ; many of the walls are
six feet thick, and bonded throughout with Roman brick.
A very agreeable account of the tavern and the antiquities
of neighbourhood was published in 1830.
" The Mourning Crown."
In Phoenix Alley, (now Hanover Court,) Long Acre, John
Taylor, the Water Poet, kept a tavern, with the sign of
" the Mourning Crown," but this being offensive to the
Commonwealth (1652), he substituted for a sign his own
head with this inscription —
There's inany a head stands for a sign ;
Then, gentle reader, why not mine ?
He died here in the following year ; and his widow in
1658.
Jerusalem Taverns, Clerkenwell.
These houses took their name from the Knights of St.
John of Jerusalem, around whose Priory grew up the village
of Clerkenwell. The Priory Gate remains. At the Sup-
396 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
pression, the Priory was undermined, and blown up with
gunpowder; the Gate also would probably have been
destroyed, but for its serving to define the property. In
1604, it was granted to Sir Roger Wilbraham for his life.
At this time Clerkenwell was inhabited by people of con-
dition. Forty years later, fashion had travelled westward :
and the Gate became the printing-office of Edward Cave,
who, in 1 73 1, published here the first number of the
Gentleman's Magazine, which to this day bears the Gate for
its vignette. Dr. Johnson was first engaged upon the
magazine here by Cave in 1737. At the Gate Johnson first
met Richard Savage ; and here in Cave's room, when visitors
called, he ate his plate of victuals behind the screen, his
dress being " so shabby that he durst not make his appear-
ance." Garrick, when first he came to London, frequently
called upon Johnson at the Gate. Goldsmith was also a
visitor here. When Cave grew rich, he had St John's Gate
painted, instead of his arms, on his carriage, and engraven
on his plate. After Cave's death in 1753, the premises
became the " Jerusalem " public-house, and the " Jerusalem
Tavern."
There was likewise another Jerusalem Tavern, at the
comer of Red Lion-street on Clerkenwell-green, which was
the original St. John's Gate public-house, having assumed
the name of " Jerusalem Tavern " in consequence of the
old house on the Green giving up the tavern business, and
becoming the " merchants' house." In its dank and cob-
webbed vaults John Britton served an apprenticeship to a
wine-merchant ; and in reading at intervals by candle-light,
first evinced that love of literature which characterized his
long life of industry and integrity. He remembered Clerken-
well in 1787, with St. John's Priory-church and cloisters ;
when Spafields were pasturage for cows ; the old garden-
mansions of the aristocracy remained in Clerkenwell-close ;
and Sadler's Wells, Islington Spa, Merhn's Cave, and Bag-
Jiigge Wells, were nightly crowded with gay company.
WHITE HART TAVERN, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT. 397
In a friendly note, Sept 11, 1832, Mr. Britton tells us :
" Our house sold wines in full quarts, i.e. twelve held three
gallons, wine measure; and each bottle was marked with
four lines cut by a diamond on the neck. Our wines were
famed, and the character of the house was high, whence the
Gate imitated the bottles and name."
In 1845, t>y the aid of "the Freemasons of the Church,"
and Mr. W. P. Griffith, architect, the north and south fronts
were restored. The gateway is a good specimen of groining
of the 15th century, with moulded ribs, and bosses orna-
mented with shields of the arms of the Priory, Prior Docwra,
etc. The east basement is the tavern bar, with a beautifully
moulded ceiling. The stairs are Elizabethan. The prin-
cipal room over the arch has been despoiled of its window-
mullions and groined roof. The foundation-wall of the
Gate face is 10 feet 7 inches thick, and the upper walls are
nearly. 4 feet, hard red brick. Stone-cased: the view from the
top of the staircase-turret is extensive. In excavating there
have been discovered the original pavement, three feet
below, the Gate ; and the Priory walls, north, south, and
west. In 185 1, there was published, by B. Foster, pro-
prietor of the Tavern, " Ye History of ye Priory and Gate
of St John." In the principal room of the Gate, over the
great arch, met the Urban Club, a society, chiefly of authors
and artists, with whom originated the proposition to cele-
brate the tercentenary of the birth of Shakspeare, in 1864.
White Hart Tavern, Bishopsgate Without.
About forty years since there stood at a short distance
north of St. Botolph's Church, a large old hostelrie, accordmg
to the date it bore (1480,) towards the close of the reign of
Edward IV. Stow, in 1598, describes it as "a fair inn for
receipt of travellers, next unto the Parish Church of St
Botolph without Bishopsgate." It preserved much of its
original appearance, the main front consisting of three bays
398 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
of two Storeys, whicli, with the interspaces, had throughout
casements ; and above which was an overhanging storey or
attic, and the roof rising in three points. Still, this was not
the original front, which was altered in 1787 : upon the old
inn yard was built White Hart Court. In 1829; the tavern
was taken down, and rebuilt, in handsome ' modem style;
when the entrance into Old Bedlam, and formerly called
Bedlam Gate, was widened, and the street re-named Liver-
pool-street.' A iithographof the old tavern was pubhshed
in 1829.
Somewhat lower down is the residence of Sir Paul Pindar,
now wine-vaults, with the sign of' Paul Pindar's Head,
corner of Half-moon-alley, No. 160, Bishopsgate-street With-
out. Sir Paul was a wealthy merchant, contemporary with
Sir Thomas Gresham. The house was built towards the
end of the i6th century, with' a wood-framed front and
caryatid brackets ; and the principal windows bayed, their
lower fronts enriched with panels of carved work. In the
first-floor front room is a fine original ceiling in stucco, in
which are the arms of Sir Paul Pindar. In the rear of these
premises, within a garden, was formerly a lodge, of cor-
responding date, decorated with four medallions, containing
figures in Italian taste. In Half-moon-alley was the Half-
moon Brewhbiise, of which there is a token in the Beaufoy:
Collection.
The Mitre, in Fenchurch-street,
Was one of the political taverns of the Civil War, and was
kept by Daniel Rawlinson, who appears to have been a
staunch royalist: his token is preserved in the Beaufoy Col-
lection. Dr. Richard Rawlinson, whose Jacobite principles
are sufficiently on record, in a letter to Hearne; the honjuring
antiquary at Oxford, says of " Daniel Rawlinson, who.kept
th6 Mitre Tavern in Fenchurch-street, and-of whose being
suspected in the Rump time, I have heard mtich. The
THE MITRE, IN FENCHURCH STREET. 399
Whigs tell this, that upon the King's murder, January 3oth>
1649, he hung his sign in mourning: he certainly j udged
right ; the honour of the mitre was much eclipsed by the
loss of so good a parent to the Church of Eagland ; these
rogues [the Whigs] say, this endeared him so much to the
Churchmen, that he strove amain, and got a good estate."
Pepys, who expressed great personal . fear of 1 the Plague,
in his Diary, August 6, 1666, notices that notwithstanding
Dan RowlaHdson!s being, all last year in the country, the
sickness in a great measure past, one of his men was then
dead at the Mitre of the pestilence ; his. wife and one of his
maids both sick, and himself shut up, which, says Pepys,
" troubles me. mightily. Godpreserve us !"
Rawlinson's tavern, the Mitre, appears to have been
destroyed in the Great Fire, and immediately after rebuilt ;
as Horace Walpole,. from Vertue's notes, states that " Isaac
Fuller was much employed to paint the great taverns in
London ; particularly the Mitre, in Fenchurch-street, where
he adorned all the sides of a great room, in panels, as was
then the fashion ;" " the figures being as large as life; over
the chimney, a Venus, Satyr, and sleeping Cupid ; a boy
riding a goat, and a,nother fallen down :" this was, he adds,
" the best part of the performance. Saturn devouring a
child, the colouring raw aijd^the figure, of Saturn too mus-
cular ; Mercury, Minerva, ■ Diana, and Apollo ; BacchuSr
Venus, and Ceres, embracing; a young Selinus fallen down,
and hpl4ing: a goblet into which a boy was pouring wine.
The Seasons between the windows, and on the ceiling, in a
large circle, two angels supporting a mitre." ;
Yet, Fuller was a wretched painter, as borne out by
Elsum's," Epigram on a Drunken Sot :" —
J His head does on his shoulder lean, ' '
His eyes are sunk, and hardly seen : . ,
Who sees this sot in his own colour,
Is apt to say, 'twas done by Fuller. :.,,,,,•
Burn's Beaufoy CafalogM, '
4CO
The King's Head, Fenchurch-street.
No. 53 is a place of historic interest ; for, the Princess
Elizabeth, having attended service at the church of All-
hallows Staining, in Langboum Ward, on her release from
the Tower, on the 19th of May, 1554, dined off pork and
peas afterwards, at the King's Head in Fenchurch Street,
where the metal dish and cover she is said to have used are
still preserved. The Tavern has been of late years enlarged
and embellished, in taste accordant with its historical associa-
tion ; the ancient character of the building being preserved
in the smoking-room, 60 feet in length, upon the walls of
which are displayed corslets, shields, helmets, and knightly
arms.
The Elephant, Fenchurch Street.
In the year 1826 was taken down the old Elephant
Tavern, which was built before the Great Fire, and narrowly
escaped its ravages. It stood on the north side of Fen-
church-street, and was originally the Elephant and Castle.
Previous to the demolition of the premises there were
removed from the wall two pictures, which Hogarth is said
to have painted while a lodger there. About this time a
parochial entertainment which had hitherto been given at
the Elephant, was removed to the King's Head (Henry
VIII.) Tavern nearly opposite. At this Hogarth was
annoyed, and he went over to the King's Head, when an
altercation ensued, and he left, threatening to stick them all
up on the Elephant tap-room ; this he is said to have done,
and on the opposite wall subsequently painted the Hudson's
Bay Company's Porters going to dinner, representing Fen-
church-street a century and a half ago. The first picture
was set down as Hogarth's first idea of his Modem Midnight
Conversation, in which he is supposed to have represented
the parochial party at the King's Head, though it differs
Old Queen's Head, Lower Road, Islington.
{Pulled dotun 1820.)
George and Blue Boar, Holborn. ( The Courtyard.
THE AFRICAN, ST. MICHAEL'S ALLEY. 401
from Hogarth's print. There was a third picture, Harlequin
and Pierrot, and on the wall of the Elephant first-floor was
found a picture of Harlow Bush Fair, coated over with
paint.
Only two of the pictures were claimed as Hogarth's. The
Elephant has been engraved ; and at the foot of the print,
the information as to Hogarth having executed these paint-
ings is rested upon the evidence of Mrs. Hibbert, who kept
the house between thirty and forty years, and received her
information from persons at that time well acquainted with
Hogarth. Still, his biographers do not record his abode in
Fenchurch-street. The Tavern has been rebuilt.
The African, St. Michael's Alley.
Another of the Cornhill taverns, the African, or Cole's
GofTee-house, is memorable as the last place at which
Professor Person appeared. He had, in some measure,
recovered from the effects of the fit in which he had fallen
on the 19th of September, 1808, when he was brought in a
hackney-coach to the London Institution in the Old Jewry.
Next morning he had a long discussion with Dr. Adam
Clarke, who took leave of him at its close ; and this was the
last conversation Porson was ever capable of holding on
any subject
Porson is thought to have fancied himself under restraint,
and to convince himself of the contrary, next morning, the
20th, he walked out, and soon after went to the African, in
St. Michael's Alley, which was one of his City resorts. On
entering the coffee-room, he was so exhausted that he must
have fallen had he not cailght hold of the curtain-rod of one
of the boxes, when he was recognised by Mr. J. P. Leigh, a
gentleman with whom he had frequently dined at the house.
A chair was given him ; he sat down, and stared around
with a vacant and ghastly countenance, and he evidently
did not recollect Mr. Leigh. He took a little wine, which
D D
402 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
revived him, but jpreviously to this his head lay upon his
breast, and he was continually rnuttering something, but in
so low and indistinct a tone as scarcely to be audible. He
then took a little jelly dissolved in warm brandy-and-water,
which considerably roused him. Still he could make no
answer to questions addressed to him, except these words,
which he repeated, probably, twenty times : — " The gentle-
man said it was a lucrative piece of business, and / think
so too," — but in a very low tone. A coach was now
brought to take him to the London Institution, and he was
helped in, and accompanied by the waiter ; he appeared
quite senseless all the way, and did not utter a word ; and
in reply to the question where they should stop, he put his
head out of the window, and waved his hand when they
came opposite the door of the Institution. Upon this Dr.
Clarke touchingly observes : " How quick the transition
from the highest degree of intellect to the lowest apprehen-
sions of sense ! On what a precarious tenure does frail
humanity hold even its choicest and most necessary gifts."
Porson. expired on the night of Sunday, September 20th,
with a deep groan, exactly as the clock struck twelve, in the
forty-ninth year of his age.
The Grave Maurice Tavern.
There are two taverns with this name, — in St. Leonard's-
road and Whitechapel-road. The history of the sign is
curious. Many years ago the latter house had a written
sign, " The Grave Morris," but this has been amended.
But the original was the famous Prince of Orange, Grave
Maurice, of whom we read in Howel's " Familiar Letters."
In Junius's " Etymologicon," Grave is, explained to be
Comes, or Count, as Palsgrave is Palatine Count; of which
we have an instance in Palsgrave Count, or Elector Pala-
tine, who married Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I.
Their issue were the Palsgrave Charles Louis, the Grave
MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, SPITALFIELDS. 403
Count or Prince Palatine Rupert^ and the Grave Count or
Prince Maurice, who alike distinguished themselves in the
Civil Wars.
The two princes, Rupert and Maurice, for their loyalty
and courage, were, after the Restoration, very popular;
which induced the author of the " Tavern Anecdotes " to
conjecture: "As we have an idea that the Mount at
Whitechapel was raised to overawe the City, Maurice, before
he proceeded to the west, might have the command of the
work on the east side of the metropolis, and a temporary
residence on the spot where his sign was so lately exhibited."
At the close, of the troubles of the reign, the two princes
retired. In 1652, they were endeavouring to annoy the
enemies of Charles II. in the West Indies, when the Grave
Maurice lost his life in a hurricane.
The sign of the Grave Maurice remained against the house
in the Whitechapel-road till the year 1806, when it was
taken down to be repainted. It represented a soldier in a
hat and feather, and blue uniform. The tradition of the
neighbourhood is, that it is the portrait of a prince of Hesse,
who was a great warrior, but of so inflexible a countenance,
that he was never seen to smile in his life ; and that he was,
therefore, most properly termed grave.
Mathematical Society, Spitalfields.
It is curious to find that a century and a half since, science
found a home in Spitalfields, chiefly among the middle and
working classes ; they met at small taverns in that locality.
It appears that a Mathematical Society, which also cultivated
electricity, was established in 1717, and met at the Mon-
mouth's Head in Monmouth-street, until 1725, when they
removed to the White Horse Tavern, in Wheeler-street;
from thence, in 1735, to Ben Jonson's Head in Pelham-
street ; and next to Crispin-street, Spitalfields. The mem-
bers were chiefly tradesmen and artisans ; among those of
D D 2
404 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
"higher rank were Canton', Dollond, Thomas Simpson, and
Crossley. The Society lent their instruments (air-pumps,
reflecting telescopes, reflecting microscopes, electrical ma-
chines, surveying instruments, etc.) with books for the use of
them, on the borrowers giving a note of hand for the value
thereof. The number of members was not to exceed the
square of seven, except such as were abroad or in the
country ; but this was increased to the squares of eight and
nine. The members met on Saturday evenings : each
present was to employ himself in some mathematical
exercise, or forfeit one penny ; and if he refused to answer
a question asked by another in mathematics, he was to
forfeit twopence. The Society long cherished a taste for
exact science among the residents in the neighbourhood of
Spitalfields, and accumulated a library of nearly 3000
volumes ; but in 1845, when on the point of dissolution, the
few remaining members made over their books, records, and
memorials to the Royal Astronomical Society, of which these
members were elected Fellows.* This amalgamation was
chiefly negotiated by Captain, afterwards Admiral Smyth.
Globe Tavern, Fleet-street.
In the last century, when public amusements were com-
paratively few, and citizens dwelt in town, the Globe in
Fleet-street was noted for its little clubs and card-parties.
Here was held, for a time, the Robin Hood Club, a
Wednesday Club, and later, Oliver Goldsmith and his friends
often finished their Shoemaker's Holiday by supping at the
Globe. Among the company was a surgeon, who, living on
the Surrey side of the Thames (Blackfriars Bridge was not
then built), had to take a boat every night, at ^s. or 4J.
expense, and the risk of his life ; yet, when the bridge was
built, he grumbled at having a penny to pay for crossing it.
Other frequenters of the Globe were Archibald Hamilton,
' Curiosities of London," p. 678.
THE DEVIL TAVERN. 405
'^ with a mind fit for a lord chancellor ;" Carnan, the book-
seller, who defeated the Stationers' Company upon the
almanac trial ; Dunstall, the comedian ; the veteran Macklin ;
Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, who always thought it
most prudent not to venture home till daylight ; and William
Woodfall, the reporter of the parliamentary debates. Then
there was one Glover, a surgeon, who restored to life a man
who had been hung in Dublin, and who ever after was a
plague to his deliverer. Brasbridge, the silversmith of Fleet-
street, was a frequenter of the Globe. In his eightieth year
he wrote his " Fruits of Experience," full of pleasant gossip
about the minor gaieties of St. Bride's. He was more fond
of following the hounds than his business, and failure was
the ill consequence : he tells of a sporting party of four —
that he and his partner became bankrupt ; the third, Mr.
Smith, became Lord Mayor j and the fourth fell into poverty,
and was glad to accept the situation of patrol before the
house of his Lordship, whose associate he had been only a
few years before. Smith had 100,000/. of bad debts on his
books, yet died worth one-fourth of that sum. We remember
the Globe, a handsomely-appointed tavern, some forty-five
years since ; but it has long ceased to be a tavern.
The Devil Tavern.
This celebrated Tavern is described in the present work,
pp. 9-13, as the meeting place of the Apollo Club. Its
later history is interesting.
Mull Sack, alias John Cottington, the noted highwayman,
of the time of the Commonwealth, is stated to have been a
constant visitor at the Devil Tavern. In the garb and
character of a man of fashion, he appears to have levied
contributions on the public as a pickpocket and highway-
man, to a greater extent than perhaps any other individual
of his fraternity on record. He not only had the honour of
picking the pocket of Oliver Cromwell, when Lord Protector,
406 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
but he afterwards robbed King Charles II., then hving in
exile at Cologne, of plate valued at 1500/. Another of his
feats was his robbing the wife of the Lord General Fairfax.
" This lady," we are told, " used to go to a lecture on a
weekday, to Ludgate Church, where one Mr. Jacomb
preached, being much followed by the precisians. Mull
Sack, obsei-ving this, — and that she constantly wore her watch
hanging by a chain from her waist, ^-against the next time
she came there, dressed himself like an officer in the army ;
and having his comrades attending him like troopers, one
of them takes out the pin of a coachwheel that was going
upwards through the gate, by which means, it falling off, the
passage was obstructed ; so that the lady could not alight at '
the church-door, but was forced to leave her coach without.
Mull Sack, taking advantage of this, readily presented him-
self to her ladyship ; and having the impudence to take her
from her gentlemen usher, who attended her alighting, led
her by the arm into the church j and by the way, with a pair
of keen or sharp scissors for the purpose, cut the chain in
two, and got the watch clear away : she not missing it till
sermon was done, when she was going to see the time of the
day." At the Devil Tavern Mull Sack could mix with the
best society, whom he probably occasionally relieved of their
"watches and purses. There is extant a very rare print of
him, in which he is represented partly in the garb of-a
chimney-sweep, his original avocation, and partly in the
fashionable costume of the period.*
In the Apollo chamber, at the Devil Tavern', were re-
hearsed, with music, the Court-day Odes of the Poets
Laureate : hence Pope, in the " Dunciad :"
Back to the Devil the loud echoes roll,
And " Coll !" each butcher roars at Hockley Hole.
The following epigram on the Odes rehearsals is by a wit
of those times :
* Jesse's " London and its Celebrities."
THE DEVIL TAVERN. 407
When Laureates make Odes, do you ask of what sort ?
Do you ask if they're good,, or are evil ?
You may judge — ^from the Devil they come to the Court,
And go from the Court to the Devil.
St. Dunstan's, or the Devil Tavern, is mentioned as a
house of old repute, in the interlude, Jacke Jugeler, 1563,
where Jack, having persuaded his cousin jenkin.
As foolish a knave v^ithall,
As any is now, within London wall,
that he was not himself, thrusts him from his master's door,
and in answer to Jenkin's sorrowful question-^where his
master and he were to dwell, replies,
At the Devyll yf you lust, I can not tell !
Ben Johnson being one night at the Devil Tavern, a
country gentleman in the company was obtrusively loquacious
touching his land and tenements : Ben, out of patience,
exclaimed, " What signifies to us your dirt and your clods ?
Where you have an acre of land I have ten acres of wit !"
" Have you so,'' retorted the countryman, " good Mr.
Wise-acre ?" " Why, how now, Ben ?" said one of the party,
" you seem to be quite stung !" " I was never so pricked
by a hobnail before," grumbled Ben.
There is a ludicrous reference to this old place in a song
descnbing the visit of James I. to St. Paul's Cathedral on
Sunday, 26th of March, 1620 :
The Maior layd downe his mace, and cry'd,
" God save your Grace,
And keepe our King from all evill !"
With all my hart I then viast, the good mace
had been in my fist.
To ha' pawn'd it for supper at the Devill I
We have already given the famous Apollo " Welcome,"
but not immortal Ben's Rules, which have been thus happily
translated by Alexander Brome, one of the wits who fre-
4o8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
quented the Devil, and who left "Poems and Songs," 1661:
he was an attorney in the Lord Mayor's Court :
Bin yo!' son's Sociable Rules for the Apollo.
Let none but guests, or clubbers, hither come.
Let dunces, fools, sad sordid men keep home.
Let learned, civil, merry men, b' invited,
And modest too ; nor be choice ladies slighted.
Let nothing in the treat offend the guests ;
More for delight than cost prepare the feast.
The cook and purvey'r must our palates know ;
And none contend who shall sit liigh or low.
Our waiters must quick-sighted be, and dumb.
And let the drawers quickly hear and come.
Let not our wine be mix'd, but brisk and neat,
Or else the drinkers may the vintners beat.
And let our only emulation be,
JNot drinking much, but talking wittily.
Let it be voted lawful to stir up
Each other with a moderate chirping cup ;
Let not our company be or talk too much ;
On serious things, or sacred, let's not touch
With sated heads and bellies. Neither may
JFiddlers unask'd obtrude themselves to play.
With laughing, leaping, dancing, jests, and songs,
And whate'er else to grateful mirth belongs,
Let's celebrate our feasts ; and let us see
That all our jests without reflection be.
Insipid poems let no man rehearse,
Nor any be compelled to write a verse.
All noise of vain disputes must be forborne,
And let no lover in a comer mourn.
To fight and brawl, like hectors, let none dare,
Glasses or windows break, or hangings tear,
Whoe'er shall publish what's here done or said
From our society must be banishM ;
Let none by drinking do or suffer harm,
And, while we stay, let us be always warm.
We must now say something of the noted hosts. Simon
Wadlow appears for the last time, as a licensed rintner, iii.
the Wardmote return, of December, 1626 ; and the buria
THE DEVIL TAVERN. 409
register of St. Dunstan's records,: "March 3otli, 1627,
Symon Wadlowe, vintner, was buried out of Fleet-street."
On St. Thomas's Day, in the last-named year, the name of
"the widow Wadlowe'' appears ; and in the following year,
1628, of the eight licensed victuallers, five were widows.
The widow Wadlowe's name is returned for the last time by
the Wardmote on December 21st, 1629.
The name of John Wadlow, apparently the son of old
Simon, appears first as a licensed victualler, in the Ward-
mote return, December 21, 1646. He issued his token,
showing on its obverse St. Dunstan holding the devil by his
nose, his lower half being that of a satyr, the devil on the
signboard was as usual, sable ; the origin of the practice
being thus satisfactorily explained by Dr. Jortin : " The
devils used often to appear to the monks in the figure of
Ethiopian boys or men ; thence probably the painters learned
to make the devil black," Hogarth, in his print of the
Burning of the Rumps, represents the hanging of the effigy
against the signboard of the Devil Tavern.
In a ludicrous and boasting ballad of 1650, we read :
Not the Vintry Cranes, nor St. Clement's Danes,,
Nor the Devil can put us down-a.
John Wadlow's name occurs for the. last time in the Ward-
mote return of December, 1660. After the Great Fire, he
rebuilt the Sun Tavern, behind the Royal Exchange : he
was a loyal man, and appears to have been sufficiently
wealthy to have advanced money to the Crown ; his auto-
graph was attached to several receipts among the Exchequer
documents lately destroyed.
Hollar's Map of London, 1667, shows the site of the
Devil Tavern, and its proximity to the barrier designated
Temple Bar, when the house had become the resort of
lawyers and physicians. In the rare volume of " Cambridge
Merry Jests," printed in the reign of Charles II., the will of
a tavern-hunter has the bequeathment of " ten pounds to be
410 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
drank by lawyers and physicians at the Devil's Tavern, by
Temple Bar."
The Tatter, October ii, 1709, contains Bickerstaff's ac-
count of the wedding entertainment at the Devil Tavern, in
honour of his sister Jenny's marriage. He hientions " the
Rules of Ben's Club in gold letters over the chimney ;" and
this is the latest notice of this celebrated ode. When, or by
whom, the board was taken from " over the chimney,'' Mr.
Burn has failed to discover.
Swift tells Stella that Oct. 12, 17 10, he dined at the Devil
Tavern with Mr. Addison and Dr. Garth, when the doctor
treated.
In 1 746, the Royal Society held here their Annual Dinner;
and in 1752, concerts of vocal and instrumental music were
given in the great room.
A view of the exterior of the Devil Tavern, with its gable-
pointed front, engraved from a drawing by Wale, was pub-
lished in Dodsley's "London and its Environs," 1761.
The sign-iron bears its pendent sign — the Saint painted as
a half-length, and the devil behind him grinning grimly over
his shoulder. On the removal of projecting signs, by
authority, in 1764, the Devil Tavern sign was placed flat
against the front, and there remained till the demolition of
the house.
Brush Collins, in March, 1775, deliverfed for several
evenings, in the great room, a satirical lecture on Modem
Oratory. In the following year, a Pandemonium Club was
held here ; and, according to a notice in Mr. Burn's posses-
sion, " the first meeting was to be on Monday, the 4th of
November, 1776. These devils were lawyers, who were
about commencing term, to the annoyance of many a
nitherto happy bon-vivant."
From bad to worse, the Devil Tavern fell into disuse, and
Messrs. Child, the bankers, purchased the freehold in 1787,
for 2800/. It was soon after demolished, and the site is
now occupied by the houses called Child's-place.
THE YOUNC DEVIL TAVEI^N. 411
We have selected and condensed these details from
Mr. Burn's exhaustive article on the Devil Tavern, in the
Beaufoy Catalogue.
There is a token of this tavern, which is very rare. The
initials stand for Simon Wadlpe, embalmed in Squire
Western's favourite air " Old Sir Simon the Ring :": — "at
THE D. AND DVNSTANS. The representation of the saint
standing at liis anvil, and pulling the nose of the ' d.' with
his pincers. — R. within temple barre. In the field,
I. s. w."
The Young Devil Tavern.
The notoriety of the Devil Tavern, as common in such
cases, created an opponent on the opposite side of Fleet-
street, named " The Young Devil." The Society of Anti-
quaries, who had previously met at the Bear Tavern, in the
Strand, changed their rendezvous Jan. 9, 1707-8, to the
Young Devil Tavern ; but the host failed, and as Browne
Willis tells us, the Antiquaries, in or about 1709, "met at
the Fountain Tavern, as we went down into the Inner
Temple, against Chancery Lane.''
Later, a music-room, called the Apollo, was- attempted,
but with no success : an advertisement for a concert, De-
cember 19, 1737, intimated "tickets to be had at Will's
Coffee-house, formerly the Apollo, in Bell Yard, near Temple
Bar." This may explain the Apollo Court, in Fleet-street,
unless it is found in the Cock Tavern below.
Cock Tavern, Fleet-street.
The Apollo Club, at the Devil Tavern, is kept in remem-
brxnce by Apollo Court, in Fleet-street, nearly opposite ;
next door eastward of which is an old tavern nearly as well
known. It is, perhaps, the most primitive place of its kind
in the metropolis : it still possesses a fragment of decoration
of the time of James I., and the writer remembers the
412 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
tavern half a century ago, with considerably more of its
original panelling. It is more than two centuries since (1665),
when the Plague was raging, the landlord shut up his house
and retired into the country ; and there is preserved one of
the farthings referred to in this advertir.ement : — "This is to
certify that the master of the Cock and Bottle, commonly
called the Cock Alehouse, at Temple Bar, hath dismissed
his servants, and shut up his house, for this long vacation,
intending (God willing) to return at Michaelmas next ; so
that all persons whatsoever who may have any accounts with
the said master, or farthings belonging to the said house, are
desired to repair thither before the 8th of this instant, and
they shall receive satisfaction." Three years later, we find
Pepys frequenting this tavern : " 23rd April, 1668. Thence
by water to the Temple, and there to the Cock Alehouse,
and drank, and eat a lobster, and sang, and mightily merry.
So almost night, I carried Mrs. Pierce home, and then
Knipp and I to the Temple again, and took boat, it being
now night." The tavern has a gilt signbird over the passage
door, stated to have been carved by Gibbons. Over the
mantelpiece is some carving, at least of the time of James I. ;
but we remember the entire room similarly carved, and a
huge black-and-gilt clock, and settle. The head-waiter of
our time lives in the verse of Laureate Tennyson— " O plump
toead-waiter of the Cock !" apostrophizes the " Will Water-
proof" of the bard, in a reverie wherein he conceives
William to have undergone a transition similar to that of
Jove's cup-bearer ; —
And hence (says he) this halo lives about
The waiter's hands, that reach j j j
To each his perfect pint of stout,
His proper chop to each.
He looks not with the common breed,
That with the napkin dally ;
I think he came, like Gannymede,
From some delightful valley.
THE HERCULES' PILLARS TA VERNS. 413
And of the redoubtable bird, who is supposed to have per-
formed tlie eagle's part in this abduction, he says : —
The Cock was of a larger egg
Than modern poultry drop,
Stept forward on a firmer leg,
And cramm'd a plumper crop.
The Hercules' Pillars Taverns.
Hercules Pillars Alley, on the south side of Fleet-street,
near St. Dunstan's Church, is described by Stiype as " alto-
gether inhabited by such as keep Publick Houses for enter-
taiment, for which it is of note."
The token of the Hercules Pillars is thus described by
Mr. Akerman : — " ed. oldham at y hercvles. A crowned
male figure standing erect, and grasping a pillar with each
hand. — R. fillers in fleet street. In the field, his half
PENNY, e. p. o." "From this example," illustratively observes
Mr. Akerman, " it would seem that the locahty, called
Hercules Pillars Alley, like other places in London, took its
name from the tavern. The mode of representing the
pillars of Hercules is somewhat novel; and, but for the
inscription, we should have supposed the figure to represent
Samson clutching the pillars of the temple of Dagon. At the
trial of Stephen Colledge, for high-treason, in 1681, an Irish-
man named Haynes, swore that he walked to the Hercules
Pillars with the accused, and that in a room upstairs Col-
ledge spoke of his treasonable designs and feeling. On
another occasion the parties walked from Richard's coffee-
house* to this tavern, where it was sworn they had a similar
conference. Colledge, in his defence, denies the truth of
the allegation, and declares that the walk from the coffee-
house to the tavern is not more than a bow-shot, and that
during such walk the witness had all the conversation to
Subsequently "Dick's."
414 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
himself, though he had sworn that treasonable expressions
had been niade use of on their way thither.
"Pepys frequented this tavern : in one part of his 'Diary'
he says, 'With Mr. Creed to Hercules Pillars, where we
drank.' In another, ' In Fleet-street I met with Mr. Salis-
bury, who is now grown in less than two years' time so great
a limner that he has become excellent and gets a great deal
of money at it. I took him to Hercules Pillars to drink.' "
Again : " After the play was done, we met with Mr.
Bateller and W. Hewer, and Talbot Pepys, and they fol-
lowed us in a hackney-coach ; and we all supped at Her-
cules Pillars ; and there I did give the best supper I could,
and pretty merry j and so home between eleven and twelve
at night." " At noon, my wife came to me at my tailor's,
and I sent her home, and myself and Tom dined at Her-
cules Pillars."
Another noted •" Hercules Pillars " was at Hyde Park
Corner, near Hamilton-place, on the site of what is now the
pavement opposite Lord Willoughby's. " Here," says Cun-
ningham, "Squire Western put his horses up when in pur-
suit of Tom Jones ; and here Field Marshal the Marquis of
Gransby was often found." And Wycherley, in his " Plain
Dealer," 1676, makes the spendthrift Jerry Blackacre, talk
of picking up his mortgaged silver " out of most of the ale-
houses between Hercules Pillars and the Boatswain, in
Wapping."
Hyde Park Comer was noted for its petty taverns, some
of which remained as late as 1805. It was to one of these
taverns that Steele took Savage to dine, and where Sir
Richard dictated and Savage wrote a pamphlet, which he
went oi;t and sold for two guineas, with which the reckoning
was paid. Steele then " returned home, having retired that
day only to avoid his creditors, and composed a pamphlet
only to discharge his reckoning."
4IS
Hole-in-the-Wall Taverns.
This odd sign exists in Chancery-lane, at a house on the
east side, immediately opposite the old gate of Lincoln's-
Inn ; " and," says Mr. Bum, " being supported by the de-
pendants on legal functionaries, appears to have undergone
fewer changes than the law, retaining all the vigour of a new
establishment." There is another " Hole-in-the-wall " in St.
Dunstan's-court, Fleet-street, much frequented by printers.
Mr. Akerman says : — " It was a popular sign, and several
taverns bore the same designation, which probably originated
in a certain tavern being situated in some umbrageous re-
cess in the old City walls. Many of the most popular and
most frequented taverns of the present day are located in
twilight courts and alleys, into which Phoebus peeps at Mid-
summer-tide only when on the meridian. Such localities may
have been selected on more than one account : they not only
afforded good skulking ' holes ' for those who loved drinking
better than work] but beer and other liquors keep better
in the shade. These haunts, like Lady Mary's farm, were —
In summer shady, and in winter warm.
Rawlins, the engraver of the fine and much coveted Ox-
ford Crown, with a view of the city under the horse, dates a
quaint supplicatory letter to John Evelyn, ' from the Hole-in-
liie-Wall, in St. Martin's ; ' no misnomer, we will be sworn, in
that aggregation of debt and dissipation, when debtors were
imprisoned with a very remote chance of redemption. In the
days of Rye-house and Meal-tub plots, philanthropy over-
looked such little matters ; and Small Debts Bills were not
dreamt of in the philosophy of speculative legislators.
Among other places which bore the designation of the Hole-
in-the-Wall, there was one in Chandos-street, in which the
famous Duval, the highwayman, was apprehended after an
attack on — tv/o bottles of wine, probably drugged by a
' friend ' or mistress."
4i6
The Mitre, in Fleet-street.
This was the true Johnsonian Mitre, so often referred to
in " Boswell's Life ;" but it has earlier fame. Here, in 1640,
Lilly met Old Will Poole, the astrologer, then living in Ram-
alley. The Royal Society Club dined at the Mitre from
1743 to 1750, the Society then meeting in Crane-court,
nearly opposite. The Society of Antiquaries met some time
at the Mitre. Dr. Macmichael, in "The Gold-headed
Cane," makes Dr. Radcliffe say : — " I never recollect to
have spent a more delightful evening than that at the Mitre
Tavern in Fleet-street, where my good friend Billy Nutly,
who was indeed the better half of me, had been prevailed
upon to accept of a small temporary assistance, and joined
our party, the Earl of Denbigh, Lords Colepeper and
Stowel, and Mr. Blackmore."
The house has a token : — william paget at the. A
mitre. — R. mttre in fleet street. In the field, w. e. p.
Johnson's Mitre is commonly thought to be the tavern
with that sign, which still exists in Mitre-court, over against
Fetter-lane ; where is shown a cast of Nollekens' bust of
Johnson, in confirmation of this house being his resort.
Such was not the case ; Boswell distinctly states it to have
been the Mitre Tavern in Fleet- street ; and the records by
Lilly and the Royal Society alike specify " in Fleet-street,"
which Mr. Burn, in his excellent account of the Beaufoy
Tokens, explains was the house. No. 39, Fleet-street, that
Macklin opened, in 1788, as the Poet's Gallery; and lastly
Saunders's auction-rooms. It was taken down to enlarge the
site for Messrs. Hoare's new banking-house. The now
Mitre Tavern, in Mitre-court, was originally called Joe's
Coffee-house ; and on the shutting up of the old Mitre, in
Fleet-street, took its name ; this being four years after John-
son's death.
The Mitre was Dr. Johnson's favourite supper-house, the
SHIP TAVERN, TEMPLE BAR. 417
parties including Goldsmith, Percy, Hawkesworth, and
Boswell; there was planned the tour to the Hebrides.
Johnson had a strange neiTOus feeling, which made him
uneasy if he had not touched every post between the Mitre
and his own lodgings. Johnson took Goldsmith to the
Mitre, where Boswell and the Doctor had supped together
in the previous month, when Boswell spoke of Goldsmith's
" very loose, odd, scrambling kind of life,'' and Johnson
defended him as one of our first men as an author, and a
very worthy man ; — adding, " he has been loose in his
principles but he is coming right." Boswell was impatient
of Goldsmith from the first hour of their acquaintance.
Chamberlain Clarke, who died in 1831, aged 92, was the
last surviving of Dr. Johnson's Mitre friends. Mr. William
Scott, Lord Stowell, also frequented the Mitre.
Boswell has this remarkable passage respecting the
house : — " We had a good supper, and port-wine, of which
he (Johnson) sometimes drank a bottle. The orthodox
high-church sound of The Mitre — the figure and manner
of the celebrated Samuel Johnson — the extraordinary
power and precision of his conversation, and the pride
arising from finding myself admitted as his companion, pro-
duced a variety of sensations, and a pleasing elevation of
mind, beyond what I had ever experienced."
Ship Tavern, Temple Bar.
This noted Tavern, the site of which is now denoted by
Ship-yard, is mentioned among the grants to Sir Christopher
Hatton, 1571. There is, in the Beaufoy Collection, a Ship
token, dated 1649, which is evidence that the inner tavern
of that sign was then extant. It was also called the Drake
from the ship painted as the sign being that in which Sir
Francis Drake voyaged round the world. Faithome, the
celebrated engraver, kept shop next door to the Drake.
E E
4lS CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
" The Ship Tavern, in the Butcher-row, near Temple Bar,"
occurs in an advertisement so late as June, 1756.
The taverns about Temple Bar were formerly numerous ;
and the folly of disfiguring signboards was then, as at a
later date, a street frolic. " Sir John Denham, the poet,
when a student at Lincoln's-Inn, in 1635, though generally
temperate as a drinker, having stayed late at a tavern with
some fellow-students, induced them to join him in ' a frolic,'
to obtain a pot of ink and a plasterer's brush, and blot out
all the signs between Temple Bar and Charing Cross.
Aubrey relates that R. Estcourt, Esq., carried the ink-pot :
and that next day it caused great confusion ; but it happened
Sir John and his comrades were discovered, and it cost
them some moneys.''
The Palsgrave Head, Temple Bar.
This once celebrated Tavern, opposite the Ship, occupied
the site of Palsgrave-place, on the south side of the Strand,
near Temple Bar. The Palsgrave Frederick, afterwards
King of Bohemia, was affianced to the Princess Elizabeth
(only daughter of James I.), in the old banqueting house at
Whitehall, December 27, 16 12, when the sign was, doubtless,
set up in compliment to him. There is a token of the
house in the Beaufoy Collection. (See "Burn's Catalogue,"
P- ^25-)
Here Prior and Montague, in " The Hind and Panther
Transversed," make the Country Mouse and the City
Mouse bilk the Hackney Coachman :
But now at Piccadilly they arrive,
And taking coach, t'wards Temple Bar they drive^
But at St. Clement's eat out the back,
And slipping through the Palsgrave, bilkt poor hack.
419
Heycock's, Temple Bar.
Near the Palsgrave's Head Tavern, was Heycock's Ordi-
nary, much frequented by Pariiament men and gallants.
Andrew Marvell usually dined here : one day, having eaten
heartily of boiled beef, with some roasted pigeons and as-
paragus, he drank his pint of port ; and on the coming in of
the reckoning, taking a piece of money out of his pocket, held
it up, and addressing his associates, certain members of
Parliament, known to be in the pay of the Crown, said
" Gentlemen, who would lett himself out for hire, while the
can have such a dinner for half-a-crown ?"
The Crown and Anchor, Strand.
This famous tavern extended from Arundel-street east-
ward to Milford-lane, in the rear of the south side of the
Strand, and occupied the site of an older house with the
same sign. Strype, in 17^9, described it as "the Crown
Tavern ; a large and curious house, with good rooms and
other conveniences fit for entertainments." Here was
instituted the Academy of Music in 1710J and here the
Royal Society Club, who had previously met at the Mitre
in Fleet-street, removed in 1780, and dined here for the
first time on December 21, and here they continued until
the tavern was converted into a club-house in 1847.
The second tavern was built in 1790. Its first landlord
was Thomas Simkin, a very corpulent man, who, in super-
intending the serving of a large dinner, leaned over a
balustrade, which broke, when he fell from a considerable
height to the ground, and was killed. The sign appears to
have been originally " The Crown," to which may have been
added the Anchor, from its being the emblem of St.
Clement's, opposite; or firom the Lord High Admiral
having once resided on the site. The tavern contained a
E E a
420 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
ball-room, 84 feet by 35 feet 6 inches; in 1798, on the
birthday of C. J. Fox, was given in this house, a banquet to
2000 persons, when the Duke of Norfolk presided. The
large room was noted for political meetings in the stormy
Tory and Radical times ; and the Crown and Anchor was
long the rallying-point of the Westminster electors. The
room would hold 2500 persons : one of the latest popular
orators who spoke here was Daniel O'Connell, M.P. There
was originally an entrance to the house from the Strand, by
a long passage, such as was the usual approach to our old
metropolitan taverns. The premises were entirely destroyed
by fire, in 1854, but have been rebuilt*
Here Johnson and Boswell occasionally supped ; and here
Johnson quarrelled with Percy about old Dr. Monsey.
Thither was brought the altar-piece (St. Cecilia), painted by
Kent for St. Clement's Church, whence it was removed, in
1725, by order of Bishop Gibson, on the supposition that
the picture contained portraits of the Pretender's wife and
children.
The Canary-House in the Strand.
There is a rare Token of this house, with the date, 1665.
The locality of the " Canary House in the Strande," says
Mr. E. B. Price, " is now, perhaps, impossible to trace \ and
it is, perhaps, as vain to attempt a description of the wine
from which it took its name, and which was so celebrated in
that and the -preceding century. Some have erroneously
identified it with sack. We find it mentioned among the
various drinks which Gascoyne so virtuously inveighs
against in his " Delicate Diet for daintie mouthde Droon-
kardes," published in 1576 : " We must have March beere,
dooble-dooble Beere, Dagger ale, Bragget, Renish wine.
White wine, French wine, Gascoyne wine. Sack, HoUocke,
Canaria wine, Vino greco, Vinum amabile, and al the wines
* See Whittington Club, p. 266.
THE FOUNTAIN TAVERN. 421
that may be gotten. Yea, wine of its selfe is not sufficient;
but Sugar, Limons, and sundrj" sortes of Spices must be
drowned therein." The bibbers of this famed wine were
wont to be termed " Canary birds." Of its qualities we can
perhaps form the best estimate from the colloquy between
" mine hostess of the Boar's Head and Doll Tearsheet ;" in
which the former charges the latter with having " drunk too
much Canaries ; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and
it perfumes the Hood ere one can say, What's this ?"*
The Fountain Tavern,
Strand, now the site of Nos. 10 1 and 102, Ries's Divan,
gave the name to the Fountain Club, composed of political
opponents of Sir Robert Walpole. Strype describes it as
" a very fine Tavern, with excellent vaults, good rooms for
entertainment, and a curious kitchen for dressing of meat,
which, with the good wine there sold, make it well resorted
to.'' Dennis, the Critic, describes his supping here with
Loggan, the painter, and others, and that after supper they
" drank Mr. Wycherley's health by name of Captain
Wycherley.''
Here, Feb. 12, 1743, was held a great meeting, at which
near 300 members of both Houses of Parliament were
present, to consider the ministerial crisis, when the Duke of
Argyll observed to Mr. Pulteney, that a grain of honesty
was worth a cart-load of gold. The meeting was held too
late to be of any avail, to which Sir Charles Hanbury
Williams alludes in one of his odes to Pulteney, invoking his
Muse thus : —
Then enlarge on his cunning and wit ;
Say, how he harang'd at the Fountain ;
Say, how the old patriots were bit,
And a mouse was produc'd by a Mountain.
♦ We learn from Collier's " Roxburghe Ballads " {Zit. Gaz. No. 1566)
that in the reign of James I. " sparkling sack " was sold at is. dd. per
quart, and " Canary — pure French wine," at "jd.
432 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Upon the Tavern site was a Drawing Academy, of
which Cosway and Wheatley were pupils ; here also was
the lecture-room of John Thelwall, the political elocu-
tionist. At No. loi, Ackermann, the printseller, illuminated
his gallery with cannel coal, when gas-lighting was a novelty.
In Fountain-court, named from the Tavern, is the Coal-
hole Tavern, upon the site of a coal-yard; it was much
resorted to by Edmund Kean, and was one of the earliest
night taverns for singing.
Tavern Life of Sir Richard Steele.
Among the four hundred letters of Steele's preserved in
the British Museum, are some written from his tavern
haunts, a few weeks after marriage, to his " Dearest being on
earth ;"
Eight o'clock, Fountain Tavern, Oct. 22, 1707'
My dear,
I beg of you not to be uneasy ; for I have done a great deal of
business to-day very successfully, and vi'ait an hour or two about my
Gazette.
In the next he does " not come home to dinner, being
obliged to attend to some business abroad." Then he
writes from the Devil Tavern, Temple Bar, January 3,
1707-8, as follows : —
I have partly succeeded in my business, and enclose two guineas as
earnest of more. DearPrue, I cannot come home to dinner; I languish
for your welfare, and will never be a moment careless more.
Your faithful husband, etc.
Within a few days, he writes from a Pall Mall tavern : —
Dear Wife,
Mr. Edgecome, Ned Ask, and Mr. Lumley, have desired me to
sit an hour with them at the George, in Pall Mall, for which I desire
your patience till twelve o'clock, and that you will go to bed, etc.
When money-matters were getting worse, Steele found it
necessary to sleep away from home for a day or two, and
he -(vrites : —
CLARE MARKE T TA KERNS. 423
Tennis-court Coffee-house, May 5, 1 708.
Dear Wife,
I hope I have done this day what will be pleasing to you ; in the
meantime shall lie this night at a baker's, one Leg, over against the
Devil Tavern, at Charing Cross. I shall be able to confront the fools
who wish me uneasy, and shall have the satisfaction to see thee cheerful
and at ease.
If the printer's boy be at home, send him hither ; and let Mr. Todd
send by the boy my night-gown, slippers, and clean linen. You shall
hear from me early in the morning, etc.
He is found excusing his coming home, being " invited
to supper at Mr. Boyle's." " Dear Prue," he says on this
occasion, " do not send after me, for I shall be ridiculous."
There were Caudles in those days.*
Clare Market Taverns.
Clare Market lying between the two great theatres, its
butchers were the arbiters of the galleries, the leaders of
theatrical rows, the musicians at actresses' marriages, the
chief mourners at players' funerals. In and around the
market were the signs of the Sun ; the Bull and Butcher,
afterwards Spiller's Head; the Grange j the Bull's Head,
where met " the Shepherd and his Flock Club," and where
Dr. Radcliffe was carousing when he received news of the
loss of his 5000/. venture. Here met weekly a Club of
Artists, of which society Hogarth was a member, and he
engraved for them a silver tankard with a shepherd and his
flock. Next is the Black Jack in Portsmouth-street, the
haunt of Joe Miller, the comedian, and where he uttered his
time-honoured "Jests :" the house remains, but the sign has
disappeared. Miller died in 1738, and was buried in St
Clement's upper ground, in Portugal-street, where his grave-
stone was inscribed with the following epitaph, written by
Stephen Duck: "Here lie the remains of honest Joe
Miller, who was a tender husband, a sincere friend, a
" Lives of Wits and Humourists," vol. i. p. 134.
424 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
facetious companion, and an excellent comedian. He
departed this life the 15th day of August, 1738, aged 54
years.
" If humour, wit, and honesty could save
The humorous, witty, honest, from the grave.
This grave had not so soon its tenant found,
With honesty, and wit, and humour crown'd.
£^ Or could esteem and love preserve our health.
And guard us longer from the stroke of Death,
The stroke of Death on him had later fell,
Whom all mankind esteem'd and loved so well. "
The stone was restored by the parish grave-digger at the
close of the last century; and in 1816, anew stone was set
up by Mr. Jarvis Buck, chiurchwarden, who added S. Duck
to the epitaph. The burial-ground has been cleared away,
and the site has been added to the grounds of King's College
Hospital.
At the Black Jack, also called the Jump (from Jack
Sheppard having once jumped out of a first-floor window, to
escape his pursuers, the thief-takers,) a Club known as " the
Honourable Society of Jackers," met until 1816. The roll
of the fraternity " numbers many of the popular actors since
the time of Joe MUIer, and some of the wits j from John
Kemble, Palmer, and Theodore Hook down to Kean,
Liston, and the mercurial John Pritt Harley. Since the
dissolution of this last reUc of the sociality of the Joe
Miller age, ' wit-combats ' have been comparatively unknown
at the Old Black Jack."*
The Craven Head, Drury-lane.
This modem Tavern was part of the offices of Craven
House, and the adjoining stabling belonged to the mansion ;
the extensive cellars still remain, though blocked up.
Craven House was built for William Lord Craven, the
'Jo. Miller;" a Biography, 18
THE COCK TAVERN, IN BOW STREET. 425
hero of Creutznach, upon part of the site of Drury House,
and was a large square pile of brick, four storeys high, which
occupied the site of the present Craven-buildings, built in
1723. That portion of the mansion abutting on Magpie
alley, now Newcastle-street, was called Bohemia House, and
was early in the last century, converted into a tavern, with
the sign of the head of its former mistress, the Queen of
Bohemia. But a destructive fire happening in the neighbour-
hood, the tavern was shut up, and the building suffered to
decay; till, at length, in 1802, what remained of the dilapi-
dated mansion was pulled down, and the materials sold ; and
upon the ground, in 1803, Philip Astley erected his Olympic
Pavilion, which was burnt down in 1849.
The Craven Head was some time kept by William Ox-
berry, the comedian, who first appeared on the stage in
1807 ; he also edited a large collection of dramas. Another
landlord of the Craven Head was Robert Hales, "the
Norfolk Giant " (height 7ft. 6in.), who, after visiting the
United States, where Bamum made a speculation of the
giant, affd 28,000 persons flocked to see him in ten
days, — in January, 1851, returned to England, and took the
Craven Head Tavern. On April nth Hales had the honour
of being presented to the Queen and Royal Family, when
Her Majesty gave him a gold watch and chain, which he
wore to the day of his death. His health had been much
impaired by the close confinement of the caravans in which
he exhibited. He died in 1863, of consumption. Hales
was cheerful and well-informed. He had visited several
Continental capitals, and had been presented to Louis
Philippe, King of the French.
The Cock Tavern, in Bow-street.
This Tavern, of indecent notoriety, was situated about the
middle of the east side of Bow-street, then consisting of very
good houses, well inhabited, and resorted to by gentry for
426 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON:
lodgings. Here Wycherley and his first wife, the Countess
of Drogheda, lodged over against the Cock, "whither, if he
at any time were with his friends, he was obliged to leave the
windows open, that the lady might see there was no woman
in the company, or she would be immediately in a down-
right raving condition." (" Dennis's Letters.")
The Cock Tavern was the resort of the rakes and
Mohocks of that day, when the house was kept by a woman
called " Oxford Kate." Here took place the indecent
exposure, which has been told by Johnson, in his life of
Sackville, Lord Dorset. " Sackville, who was then Lord
Buckhurst, with Sir Charles Sedley, and Sir Thomas Ogle,
got dnmk at the Cock, in Bow-street, by Covent-Garden,
and going into the balcony, exposed themselves to the
company in very indecent postures. At last, as they grew
warmer, Sedley stood forth naked, and harangued the
populace in such profane language, that the public indigna-
tion was awakened ; the crowd attempted to force the door,
and being repulsed, drove in the performers with stones, and
broke the windows of the house. For this misdemeanour
they were indicted, and Sedley was fined five hundred
pounds ; what was the sentence of the others is not known.
Sedley employed Killegrew and another to procure a
remission of the King, but (mark the friendship of the
dissolute !) they begged the fine for themselves, and exacted
it to the last groat."
Sir John Coventry had supped at the Cock Tavern, on
the night when, in his way home, his nose was cut to the
bone, at the corner of Suffolk-street, in the Haymarket, " for
reflecting on the King, who, therefore, determined to set a
mark upon him :" he was watched ; when attacked, he stood
up to the wall, and snatched the flambeau out of the
servant's hands, and with that in one hand, and the sword
in the other, he defended himself, but was soon disarmed,
and his nose was cut to the bone ; it was so wellsewed up
that the scar was scarce to be discerned. This attempt at
THE SHAKSPEAkE TA VERX. 427
assassination occasioned the Coventry Act, 22 and 23 Car.
II. c. I, by which specific provisions were made against the
offence of maiming, cutting off, or disabling, a limb or
member.
The Queen's Head, Bow-street.
This Tavern, in Duke's Court, was once kept by a
facetious person, named Jupp, and is associated with a piece
of humour, which may either be matter of fact, or inter-
preted as a pleasant satire upon etymological fancies. One
evening, two well-known characters, Annesley Shay and Bob
Todrington (the latter caricatured by Old Dighton), met at
the Queen's Head, and at the bar asked for " half a
quartern " each, with a little cold water. They continued to
drink until they had swallowed four-and-twenty half-quarterns
in water, when Shay said to the other, " Now, we'll go."
" Oh, no," replied he, " we'll have another, and then go.''
This did not satisfy the Hibernians, and they continued
drinking on till three in the morning, when they both agreed
to GO : so that under the idea of going they made a long
stay, and this was the origin of drinking, or calling for, goes
of liquor ; but another, determined to eke out the measure
his own way, used to call for a quartern at a time, and these,
in the exercise of his humour, he called stays. We find the
above in the very pleasant " Etymological Compendium,"
third edition, revised and improved by Merton A. Thorns,
1853-
The Shakspeare Tavern.
Of this noted theatrical tavern, in the Piazza, Covent
Garden, several details were received by Mr. John Green,
in 1815, from Twigg, who was apprenticed at the Shak-
speare. They had generally fifty turtles at a rime; and
upon an average from ten to fifteen were dressed every
week ; and it was not unusual to send forty quarts of turtle
soup a-week into the country, as far as Yorkshire.
42S CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The sign of Shakspeare, painted by Wale, cost nearly
200/. : it projected at the comer, over the street, with very
rich iron-work. Dick Milton was once landlord ; he was a
great gamester and once won 40,000/. He would fre-
quently start with his coach-and-six, which he would keep
about six months, and then sell it. He was so much re-
duced, and his credit so bad, at times, as to send out for a
dozen of wine for his customers; it was sold at xds. a
bottle. This is chronicled as the first tavern in London
that had rooms ; and from this house the other taverns were
supplied with waiters. Here were held three clubs — the
Madras, Bengal, and Bombay.
Twigg was cook at the Shakspeare. The largest dinner
ever dressed here consisted of 108 made dishes, besides
hams, etc., and vegetables j this was the dinner to Admiral
Keppel, when he was made First Lord of the Admiralty.
Twigg told of another dinner to Sir Richard Simmons, of
Earl's Court, Mr. Small, and three other gentlemen ; it con-
sisted of the following dishes : — A turbot of 401b., a Thames
salmon, a haunch of venison, French beans and cucumbers,
a green goose, an apricot tart, and green peas. The dinner
was dressed by Twigg, and it came to about seven guineas a
head.
The Shakspeare is stated to have been the first tavern in
Covent Garden. Twigg relates of Tomkins, the landlord, that
his father had been a man of opulence in the City, but failed
for vast sums. Tomkins kept his coach and his country-
house, but was no gambler, as has been reported. He died
worth 40,000/. His daughter manied Mr. Longman, the
music-seller. Tomkins had never less than a hundred pipes
of wine in his cellar ; he kept seven waiters, one cellar-man,
and a boy. Each waiter was smartly dressed in his ruffles,'
and thought it a bad week if he did not make 7/. Stacie,
who partly served his apprenticeship to Tomkins, told Twigg
that he had betted nearly 3000/ upon one of his race-horse,
THE ROSE TAVERN, COVEN T GARDEN 429
of the name of Goldfinder. Stacie won, and afterwards
sold the horse for a large sum.
There was likewise a Shakspeare Tavern in Little Russell-
street, opposite Drury-lane Theatre ; the sign was altered in
1828, to the Albion.
Shuter, and his Tavern-places.
Shuter, the actor, at the age of twelve, was pot-boy at
the Queen's Head (afterwards Mrs. Butler's), in Covent
Garden, where he was so kind to the rats in the cellar, by
giving them sops from porter, (for, in his time, any person
might have a toast in his beer,) that they would creep about
him and upon him ; he would carry them about between
his shirt and his waistcoat, and even called them by their
names. Shuter was next pot-boy at the Blue Posts, op-
posite Brydges-street, then kept by EUidge, and afterwards
by Carter, who played well at billiards, on account of the
length of his arms. Shuter used to carry beer to the players,
behind the scenes at Drury-lane Theatre, and elsewhere,
and being noticed by Hippisley, was taken as his servant,
and brought on the stage. He had also been at the house
next the Blue Posts, — the Sun, in Russell-street, which was
frequented by Hippisley. Mr. Theophilus Forrest, when
he paid Shuter his money, allowed him in his latter days
two guineas per week, found him calling for gin, and his shirt
was worn to half its original size. Latterly, he was hooted
by the boys in the street : he became a Methodist, and
died at King John's Palace, Tottenham Court Road.
The Rose Tavern, Covent Garden.
This noted Tavern, on the east side of Biydges-street,
flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and
from its contiguity to Drury-lane Theatre, and close con-
43° CLUB LIFE OF LON/)ON.
nection with it, was frequented by courtiers and men of
letters, of loose character, and other gentry of no character
at all. The scenes of The Morning Ramble, or the Town
Humour, 1672, are laid "at the Rose Tavern, in Covent
Garden," which was constantly a scene of drunken broils,
midnight orgies, and murderous assaults by men of fashioni
who were designated " Hectors," and whose chief pleasure
lay in frequenting taverns for the running through of some
fuddled toper, whom wine had made valiant. Shadwell, in his
comedy of the Scowrers, 1691, written at a time when
obedience to the laws was enforced, and these excesses had
in consequence declined, observes of these cowardly ruffians :
" They were brave fellows indeed ! In those days a man
could not go from the Rose Tavern to the Piazza once,
but he must venture his hfe twice."
Women of a certain freedom of character frequented
taverns at the commencement of the last century, and the
Rose, doubtless, resembled the box-lobby of a theatre. In
the Rake Reformed, 17 18, this tavern is thus noticed :
Not far from thence appears a pendent sign,
Whose bush declares the product of the vine,
Whence to the traveller's sight the full-blown Rose,
Its dazzling beauties doth in gold disclose ;
And painted faces flock in tally'd clothes.
Dramatists and poets resorted to the house, and about 1726
. Gay and other wits, by clubbing verses, concocted the
well-known love ditty, entitled " Molly Mogg of the Rose,"
in compliment to the then barmaid or waitress. The
Welsh ballad, "Gwinfrid Shones," printed in 1733, has also
this tribute to Molly Mogg, as a celebrated toast :
Some sing Molly Mogg of the Rose,
And call her the Oakingham pelle ;
Whilst others does farces compose,
On peautiful MoUe Lepelle.
Hogarth's third print of the Rake's Progress, published in
1735, exhibits a principal room in the Rose Tavern : Lether-
EVANS'S, COVENT GARDEN. 431
coat, the fellow with a bright pewter dish and a candle, is
a portrait ; he was for many years a porter attached to the
house.
Garrick, when he enlarged Drury-lane Theatre, in 1776,
raised the new front designed by Robert Adam, took in the
whole of the tavern, as a convenience to the theatre, and
retained the sign of the Rose in an oval compartment, as a
conspicuous part of the decoration, which is shown in a
popular engraving by J. T. Smith.
In D'Urfey's Songs, 17 19, we find these allusions to the
Rose :
A Song in Praise of Chalk, by W. Pettis.
We the lads at the Rose
A patron have chose,
Who's as void as the best is of thinking ;
And without dedication,
Will assist in his station,
And maintains us in eating and drinking.
Song. — The Nose.
Three merry lads met at the Rose,
To speak in the praises of the nose :
The flat, the sharp, the Roman snout,
The hawk's nose circled round about.
The crooked nose that stands awry,
The ruby nose of scarlet dye ;
The brazen nose without a face,
That doth the learned college grace.
Invention often ban-en grows,
Yet still there's matter in the nose.
Evans's, Covent Garden.
At the north-west comer of Covent Garden Market is a
lofty edifice, which, with the building that preceded it,
possesses a host of interesting associations. Sir Kenelm
Digby came to live here after the Restoration of Charles II. :
here he was much visited by the philosophers of his day,
and built in the garden in the rear of the house a laboratory.
432 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The mansion was altered, if not rebuilt, for the Earl of
Orford, better known as Admiral Russell, who, in 1692,
defeated Admiral de Tourville, and ruined the French fleet.
The fa9ade of the house originally resembled the forecastle
of a ship. The fine old staircase is formed of part of the
vessel Adriiiral Russell commanded at La Hoguej it has
handsomely carved anchors, ropes, and the coronet and
initials of Lord Orford. The Earl died here in 1727; and
the house was afterwards occupied by Thomas, Lord Archer,
until 1768; and by James West, the great, collector of
books, etc., and President of the Royal Society, who died
in 177a.
Mr. Twigg recollected Lord Archer's garden (now the
site of the singing-room), at the back of the Grand Hotel,
about 1765, well stocked; njushrooms and cucumbers were
grown there in high perfection.
In 1774, the house was opened by David Low as an
hotel j the first family hotel, it is said, in London. Gold,
silver, and copper medals were struck, and given by Low,
as advertisements of his house ; the gold to the princes,
silver to the nobility, and copper to the public generally.
About 1794, Mrs. Hudson, then proprietor, advertised her
hotel, " with stabling for one hundred noblemen and horses."
The next proprietors were Richardson and Joy.
At the beginning of the present century, and some years
afterwards, the hotel was famous for its large dinner- and
coffee-room. This was called the " Star," from the number
of men of rank who frequented it. One day a gentleman
entered the dining-room, and ordered of the waiter two
lamb-chops ; at the same time inquiring, " John, have you
a cucumber ?" The waiter replied in the negative — it was
so early in the season ; but he would step into the market,
and inquire if there were any. The waiter did so, and
returned with — " There are a few, but they are half-a-guinea
apiece." " Half-a-guinea apiece ! are they small or large?"
" Why, rather small." " Then buy two," was the reply. This
The Swiss Cottage, Finchley Road.
[House of Meeting for Gimans in London.^
The Catharine Wheel Inn, Southwarlc.
THE FLEECE, COVENT GARDEN. 433
incident has been related of various epicures; it occurred
to Charles Duke of Norfolk, who died in 1815.
Evans, of Covent Garden Theatre, removed here from
the Cider Cellar in Maiden-lane, and, using the large dining-
room for a singing-room, prospered until 1844, when he re-
signed the property to Mr. John Green. Meanwhile, the
character of the entertainment, by the selection of music of
a higher class than hitherto, brought so great an accession
of visitors, that Mr. Green built, in 1855, on the site of the
old garden (Digby's garden) an extremely handsome hall, to
which the former singing-room forms a sort of vestibule.
The latter is hung with the collection of portraits of cele-
brated actors and actresses, mostly of our own time, which
Mr. Green has been at great pains to collect.
The sp'ecialitt of this very agreeable place is the olden
music, which is sung here with great intelligence and spirit ;
the visitors are of the better and more appreciative class,
and often include amateurs of rank. The reserved gallery
is said to occupy part of the site of the cottage in which the
Kembles occasionally resided during the zenith of their fame
at Covent Garden Theatre ; and here the gifted Fanny
Kemble is said to have been born.
The Fleece, Covent Garden.
The Restoration did not mend the morals of the taverns
in Covent Garden, but increased their licentiousness, and
made them the resort of bullies and other vicious persons.
The Fleece, on the west side of Brydges-street, was notorious
for its tavern broils ; L'Estrange, in his translation of
Quevedo's "Visions," i667,makesoneof the Fleece hectors
declare he was never well but either at the Fleece Tavern
or Bear at Bridgefoot, stuffing himself " with food and tipple,
till the hoops were ready to burst." According to Aubrey,
the Fleece was " very unfortunate for homicides ;" there were
several killed there in his time ; it was a private house till
F F
434 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
1692. Aubrey places it in York-street, so that there must
have been a back or second way to the tavern — a very con-
venient resource.
The Bedford Head, Covent Garden,
Was a luxurious refectory, in Southampton street, whose
epicurism is commemorated by Pope ; —
Let me extol a cat on oysters fed,
I'll have a party at the Bedford Head.
2nd Sat. of Horace, znd Bk.
When sharp with hunger, scorn you to be fed
Except on pea-chicks at the Bedford Head ?
Pope, Sobei- Advice.
Walpole refers to a great supper at the Bedford Head,
oxdered by Paul Whitehead, for a party of gentlemen dressed
like sailors and masked, who, in 1741, on the night of
Vernon's birthday, went round Covent Garden with a dnim,
beating up for a volunteer mob ; but it did not take.
The Salutation, Tavistock-street.
This was a noted tavern in the last century, at the corner
of Tavistock-court, Covent Garden. Its original sign was
taken down by Mr. Yerrel, the landlord, who informed
J. T. Smith, that it consisted of two gentlemen saluting each
other, dressed in flowing wigs, and coats with square pockets,
large enough to hold folio books, and wearing swords, this
being the dress of the time when the sign was put up,
supposed to have been about 1707, the date on a stone at
the Covent Garden end of the court.
Richard Leveridge, the celebrated singer, kept the Saluta-
tion after his retiriement from the stage; and here he brought
out his " Collection of Songs," with the music, engraved and
printed for the author, 1727.
Among the frequenters of the Salutation was William
THE CONSTITUTION TAVERN, COVENT GARDEN. 435
Cussans, or Cuzzons, a native of Barbadoes, and a most
eccentric fellow, who lived upon an income allowed him by
his family. He once hired himself as a potman, and then
as a coal-heaver. He was never seen to smile. He
personated a chimney-sweeper at the Pantheon and Opera-
house masquerades, and wrote the popular song of Robinson
Crusoe :
He got all the wood
That ever he could,
And he stuck it together with glue so ;
And made him a hut.
And in it he put
The carcase of Robinson Crusoe.
He was a bacchanalian customer at the Salutation, and
his nightly quantum of wine was liberal : he would some-
times take eight pints at a sitting, without being the least
intoxicated.
The Constitution Tavern, Covent Garden.
In Bedford-street, near St. Paul's church-gate, was an old
tavern, the Constitution (now rebuilt), noted as the resort
of working men of letters, and for its late hours ; indeed,
the sittings here were perennial. Among other eccentric
persons we remember to have seen here, was an ac-
complished scholar named Churchill, who had travelled
much in the East, smoked and ate opium to excess, and
was full of information. Of another grade were two friends
who lived in the same house, and had, for many years
"turned night into dayj" rising at eight o'clock in the
evening, and going to bed at eight next morning. They
had in common some astrological, alchemical, and spiritual
notions, and often passed the whole night at the Constitu-
tion. This was the favourite haunt of Wilson, the landscape
painter, who then lived in the Garden ; he could, at the
Constitution, freely indulge in a pot of porter, and enjoy the
F F 3
43t> CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
fun of his brother-painter, Mortimer, who preferred this
house, as it was near his own in Church-passage.
The Cider Cellar.
This strange place, upon the south side of Maiden-lane,
Covent Garden, was opened about 1730, and is described
as a " Midnight Concert Room," in " Adventures Under-
ground, 1750." Professor Person was a great lover of
cider, the patronymic drink for which the cellar was once
famed ; it became his nightly haunt, for wherever he spent
the evening, he finished the night at the cider cellar. One
night, in 1795, as ^^ ^^.t here smoking his pipe, with his
friend George Gordon, he abruptly said, " Friend George, do
you think the widow Lunan an agreeable sort of personage,
as times go ?" Gordon assented. " In that case," replied
Porson, " you must meet me to-morrow morning at St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, at eight o'clock ;" and without saying
more, Porson paid his reckoning and went home. Next
morning, Gordon repaired to the church, and there found
Porson with Mrs. Lunan and a female friend, and the parson
waiting to begin the ceremony. The service being ended,
the bride and her friend retired by one door of the church
and Porson and Gordon by another. The bride and bride-
groom dined together with friends, but after dinner Porson
contrived to slip away and passed the rest of the day with a
learned friend, and did not leave till the family were about
to retire for the night, when Porson adjourned to the Cider
Cellar, and there stayed till eight o'clock next morning.
One of his companions here is said to have shouted before
Porson, " Dick can beat us all : he can drink all night, and
spout all day," which greatly pleased the Professor.
We remember the place not many years after Porson's
death, when it was, as its name implied, a cellar, and the
fittings were rude and rough : over the mantel-piece was a
large mezzotint portrait of Porson, framed and glazed, which
OFFLEY'S, HENRIETTA STREET. 437
we take to be the missing portrait named by the Rev. Mr.
Watson, in his Life of the Professor. The Cider Cellar was
subsequently enlarged ; but its exhibitions grew to be too
sensational for long existence.
Offley's, Henrietta-street.
This noted Tavern, of our day, enjoyed great and de-
served celebrity, though short-lived. It was No. 23, on the
south side of Henrietta-street, Covent Garden, and its fame
rested upon Burton ale, and the largest supper-room in this
theatrical neighbourhood ; with no pictures, placards, paper-
hangings, or vulgar coffee-room finery, to disturb one's relish
of the good things there provided. Offley, the proprietor,
was originally at Bellamy's, and " as such, was privileged to
watch, and occasionally admitted to assist, the presiding
priestess of the gridiron at the exercise of her mysteries."
Offley's chop was thick and substantial ; the House of
Commons' chop was small and thin, and honourable
Members sometimes ate a dozen at a sitting. Offley's chop
was served with shalots shred, and warmed in gravy, and
accompanied by nips of Burton ale, and was a delicious
after-theatre supper. The large room at that hour was
generally crowded with a higher class of men than are to be
seen in taverns of the present day. There was excellent
dining upstairs, with wines really worth drinking — all with a
sort of Quakerly plainness, but solid comfort. The fast
men came to the great room, where the spkialitk was singing
by amateurs upon one evening of the week ; and to prevent
the chorus waking the dead in their cerements in the
adjoining churchyard, the coffee-room window was double.
The "professionals" stayed away. Francis Crew sang
Moore's melodies, then in their zenith \ sometimes, in a
spirit of waggery, an amateur would sing " Chevy Chase " in
full ; and now and then Offley himself trolled out one of
Captain Morris's lyrics. Such was this right joyously con-
438 CLUB LI1<E OF LONDON.
vivial place some five-and-forty years since upon the singing
night. Upon other evenings, there came to a large round
table (a sort of privileged place) a few well-to-do, substan-
tial tradesmen from the neighbourhood, among whom Vas
the renowned surgical-instrument maker from the Strand,
who had the sagacity to buy the iron from off the piles of
old London Bridge, and convert it (after it had lain for
centuries under water) into some of the finest surgical
instruments of the day. Offley's, however, declined : the
singing was discontinued ; Time had thinned the ranks and
groups of the bright and buoyant; the large room was
mostly frequented by quiet, orderly persons, who kept good
hours ; the theatre-suppers grew few and far between ; the
merry old host departed — when it was proposed to have his
portrait painted — but in vain ; success had ebbed away, and
at length the house was closed.*
OflHey's was sketched with a free hand, in "Horse
Offleanse, Bentley's Miscellany," March, 1841.
The Rummer Tavern.
The locality of this noted tavern is given by Cunningham,
as " two doors from Locket's, between Whitehall and Char-
ing Cross, removed to the water-side of Charing Cross, in
1710, and burnt down Nov. 7th, 1750. It was kept in the
reign of Charles II., by Samuel Prior, uncle of Matthew
Prior, the poet, who thus wrote to Fleetwood Shephard :
My uncle, rest his soul 1 when living,
Might have contriv'd me ways of thriving :
Taught me with cider to replenish
My vats, or ebbing tide of Rhenish.
So when for hock I drew prickt white- wine,
Swear't had the flavour, and was right wine.
The Rummer is introduced by Hogarth into his picture
" Walks and Talks about London," 1865, pp. 180-182.
SPRING GARDEN TAVERNS. 439
of "Night" Here Jack Sheppard committed his first
robbery by stealing two silver spoons.
The Rummer, in Queen-street, was kept by Brawn, a
celebrated cook, of whom Dr. King, in his " Art of
Cookery," speaks in the same way as Kit-Kat and Locket.
King, also, in his " Analogy between Physicians, Cooks,
and Playwrights," thus describes a visit : —
" Though I seldom go out of my own lodgings, I was
prevailed on the other day to dine with some friends at the
Rummer in Queen-street Sam Trusty would needs
have me go with him into the kitchen, and see how matters
went there He assured me that Mr. Brawn had an
art, etc. I was, indeed, very much pleased and surprised
with the extraordinary splendour and economy I observed
there ; but above all with the great readiness and dexterity
of the man himself His motions were quick, but not
precipitate ; he in an instant applied himself from one stove
to another, without the least appearance of hurry, and in the
midst of smoke and fire preserved an incredible serenity of
countenance."
Beau Brummel, according to Mr. Jesse, spoke with a
relish worthy a descendant of " the Rummer," of the savoury
pies of his aunt Brawn, who then resided at Kilburn ; she is
said to have been the widow of a grandson of the celebrity
of Queen-street, who had himself kept the public-house at
the old Mews Gate, at Charing Cross. — See Notes and
Queries, and S., No. xxxvi.
We remember an old tavern, "the Rummer," in 1825,
which was taken down with the lower portion of St. Martin's-
lane, to form Trafalgar-square.
Spring Garden Taverns.
Spring Garden is named from its water-spring or fountain,
set playing by the spectator treading upon its hidden
machinery — an eccentricity of the EHzabethan garden.
44° CLUB LIFE OF LOADON.
Spring Garden, by a patent which is extant, in 1630 was
made a bowling-green by command of Charles I. " There
was kept in it an ordinary of six shillings a meal (when the
king's proclamation allows but two elsewhere); continual
bibbing and drinking wine all day under the trees ; two or
three quarrels every week. It was grown scandalous and
insufiferable ; besides, my Lord Digby being reprehended for
striking in the king's garden, he said he took it for a
common bowling-place, where all paid money for their
coming in." — Mr. Garrard to -Lord Strafford.
In 1634 Spring Garden was put down by the King's
command, and ordered to be hereafter no-common bowling-
place. This led to the opening of " a New Spring Garden "
(Shaver's Hall), by a gentleman-barber, a servant of the lord
chamberlain's. The old garden was, however, re-opened ;
for 13th June, 1649, says Evelyn, "I treated divers ladies
of my relations in Spring Gardens ;" but loth May, 1654,
he records that Cromwell and his partisans had shut up and
seized on Spring Gardens, " w'"" till now had been y* usual
rendezvous for the ladys and gallants at this season."
Spring Garden was, however, once more re-opened ; for,
in "A Character of England," 1659, it is described as "The
inclosure not disagreeable, for the solemnness of the grove,
the warbling of the birds, and as it opens into the spacious
walks at St. James's. ... It is usual to find some of the
young company here till midnight ; and the thickets of the
garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry,
after they have refreshed with the collation, which is here
seldom omitted, at a certain cabaret in the middle of this
paradise, where the forbidden fruits are certain trifling tarts,
neats' tongues, salacious meats, and bad Rhenish."
"The New Spring Garden" at Lambeth (afterwards
Vauxhall) was, flourishing , in 1661-3 ; when the ground at
Charing" Cross was built upon, as " Inner Spring Garden "
and " Outer Spring Garden.'' Buckingham-court is named
from the Duke of Buckingham, one of the rakish frequenters
"HEAVEN" AND "HELL" TAVERNS. 441
of the Garden ; and upon the site of Drummond's banking-
house was " Locket's Ordinary, a house of entertainment
much frequented by gentry," and a relic of the Spring
Garden gaiety :
For Locket's stands where gardens once did spring.
Dr. Kin^s Art of Cookery, 1709.
Here the witty and beautiful dramatist, Mrs. Centlivre,
died, December i, 1723, at the house of her third husband,
Joseph Centlivre, "Yeoman of the Mouth" (head cook) " to
Queen Anne."* In her Prologue to Lov^s Contrivances,
17031 we have,
At Locket's, Brown's, and at Pontack's enquire
What modish kickshaws the nice beaux desire,
What famed ragouts, what new invented sallad,
Has best pretensions to regain the palate.
Locket's was named from its first landlord :t its fame
declined in the reign of Queen Anne, and expired early in
the next reign.
" Heaven " and " Hell " Taverns, Westminster.
At the north end of Lindsay-lane, upon the site of the
Committee-rooms of the House of Commons, was a tavern
called ■' Heaven ;" and under the old Exchequer Chamber
were two subterraneous passages called "Hell "and "Pur-
gatory." Butler, in Hudibras, mentions the first as
False Heaven at the end of the Hell ;
GifTord, in his notes on Ben Jonson, says : " Heaven and
Hell were two common alehouses, abutting on Westminster
* " Curiosities of London," pp. 678, 679.
t Edward Locket, in 1693, took the Bowling-green house, on Putney
Heath, where all gentlemen might be entertained. In a house built on
the site of the above died, January 23, 1806, the Right Hon. William
Pitt.
442 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Hall. Whalley says that they were standing in his remem-
brance. They are mentioned, together with a third house,
called Purgatory, in a grant which I have read, dated in the
first year of Henry VII."
Old Fuller quaintly says of Hell : " I could wish it had
another name, seeing it is ill jesting with edged tools. I
am informed that formerly this place was appointed a prison
for the King's debtors, who never were freed thence until
they had paid their uttermost due demanded of them. This
proverb is since applied to moneys paid into the Exchequer,
which thence are irrecoverable, upon what plea or pretence
whatever."
Peacham describes Hell as a place near Westminster
Hall, " where very good meat is dressed all the term time ;"
and the Company of Parish Clerks add, it is "very much
frequented by lawyers." According to Ben Jonson, Hell
appears to have been frequented by lawyers' clerks ; for, in
his play of the Alchemist, Dapper is forbidden
To break his fast in Heaven or Hell.
Hugh Peters, on his Trial, tells us that he went to West-
minster to find out some company to dinner with him, and
having walked about an hour in Westminster Hall, and
meeting none of his friends to dine with him, he went " to
that place called Heaven, and dined there."
When Pride " purged " the Parliament, on December 6,
1648, the forty-one he excepted were shut up for the
night in the Hell tavern, kept by a Mr. Duke {Cariyle) ;
and which Dugdale calls " their great victualling-house near
Westminster Hall, where they kept them all night without
any beds."
Pepys, in his " Diary," thus notes his visit : " 28 Jan.,
1659-60. And so I returned and went to Heaven, where
Ludlin and I dined." Six years later, at the time of the
Restoration, four days before the King landed, in one of
these taverns, Pepys spent the evening with Locke and
" BELLAMY'S KITCHEN." 443
Purcell, hearing a variety of brave Italian and Spanish
songs, and a new canon . of Locke's on the words,
"Domine salvum fac Regem." "Here, out of the win-
dows," he says, " it was a most pleasant sight to see the
City, from one end to the other, with a glory about it, so
high was the light of the bonfires, and thick round the City,
and the bells rang everywhere."
After all, " Hell" may have been so named from its being
a prison of the King's debtors, most probably a very bad
one : it was also called the Constabulary. Its Wardenship
was valued yearly at the sum of lu., and Paradise at 4/.
Purgatory appears also to have been an ancient prison,
the keys of which, attached to a leathern girdle, says
Walcot's Westminster, are still preserved. Herein were
kept the ducking-stools for scolds, who were placed in a
chair fastened on an iron pivot to the end of a long pole,
which was balanced at the middle upon a high trestle, thus
allowing the culprit's body to be ducked in the Thames.
"Bellamy's Kitchen."
In a pleasantly written book, entitled " A Career in the
Commons,'' we find this sketch of the singular apartment, in
the vicinity of the (Old) House of Commons, called " the
Kitchen." " Mr. Bellamy's beer may be unexceptionable,
and his chops and steaks may be unrivalled, but the legis
lators of England delight in eating a dinner in the place
where it is cooked, and in the presence of the very fire
where the beef hisses and the gravy runs ! Bellamy's kitchen
seems, in fact, a portion of the British Constitution. A
foreigner, be he a Frenchman, American, or Dutchman, if
introduced to the ' kitchen,' would stare with astonishment
if you told him that in this plain apartment, with its im-
mense fire, meatscreen, gridirons, and a small tub under the
window for washing the glasses, the statesmen of England
very often dine, and men, possessed of wealth untold, and
444 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
with palaces of their own, in which luxury and splendour are
visible in every part, are willing to leave their stately dining-
halls and powdered attendants, to be waited upon, while
eating a chop in Bellamy's kitchen, by two unpretending
old women. Bellamy's kitchen, I repeat, is part and parcel
of the British Constitution. Baronets who date from the
Conquest, and squires of every degree, care nothing for the
unassuming character of the ' kitchen,' if the steak be hot
and good, if it can be quickly and conveniently dispatched,
and the tinkle of the division-bell can be heard while the
dinner proceeds. Call England a proud nation, forsooth !
Say that the House of Commons is aristocratic ! Both the
nation and its representatives must be, and are, unquestion-
able patterns of republican humility if all the pomp and
circumstance of dining can be forgotten in Bellamy's
kitchen !"*
A Coffee-house Canary-bird.
Of "a great Coffee-house" in Pall Mall we find the follow-
ing amusing story, in the "Correspondence of Gray and
Mason," edited by Mitford : —
" In the year 1688, my Lord Peterborough had a great
mind to be well with Lady Sandwich, Mrs. Bonfoy's old
friend. There was a woman who kept a great Coffee-house
in Pall Mall, and she had a miraculous canary-bird that piped
twenty tunes. Lady Sandwich was fond of such things, had
heard of and seen the bird. Lord Peterborough came to
the woman, and offered her a large sum of money for it, but
she was rich, and proud of it, and would not part with it for
love or money. However, he watched the bird narrowly,
observed all its marks and features, went and bought just
such another, sauntered into the coffee-room, took his oppor-
* At the noted Cat and Bagpipes tavern, at the south-west comer ofi
Downing-street, George Rose used to eat his mutton-chop ; he subse-
quently became Secretary to the Treasury.
STAR AND CASTES, PALL MALL. 445
tunity when no one was by, slipped the wrong bird into the
cage and the right into his pocket, and went off undiscovered
to make my Lady Sandwich happy. This was just about
the time of the Revolution ; and, a good while after, going
into the same coffee-house again, he saw his bird there, and
said, ' Well, I reckon you would give your ears now that
you had taken my money.' ' Money !' says the woman, ' no,
nor ten times that money now, dear little creature ! for, if
your lordship will believe me (as I am a Christian, it is true),
it has moped and moped, and never once opened its pretty
lips since the day that the poor king went away !' "
Star and Garter, Pall Mall.
FATAL DUEL.
Pall Mall has long been noted for its taverns, as well as
for its chocolate and coffee houses, and " houses for club-
bing." They were resorted to by gay nobility and men of
estate ; and, in times when gaming and drinking were
indulged in to frightful excess, these taverns often proved
hot-beds of quarrel and fray. One of the most sanguinary
duels on record — that between the Duke of Hamilton and
Lord Mohun — was planned at the Queen's Arms, in Pall
Mall, and the Rose in Covent Garden ; at the former Lord
Mohun supped with his second on the two nights preceding
the fatal conflict in Hyde Park.
Still more closely associated with Pall Mall was the fatal
duel between Lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth, which was
fought in a room of the Star and Garter, when the grand-
uncle of the poet Lord killed in a duel, or rather scuffle, his
relation and neighbour, "who was run through the body,
and died next day." The duellists were neighbours in the
country, and were members of the Nottinghamshire Club,
which met at the Star and Garter once a month.
The meeting at which arose the unfortunate dispute tha
produced the duel was on the 26th of January, 1765, when
44.6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
were present Mr. John Hewet, who sat as chairman ; the
Hon. Thomas Willoughby, Frederick Montagu, John
Shenvin, Francis Molyneux, Esqrs., and Lord Byron ;
William Chaworth, George Donston, and Charles Mellish,
junior, Esq. ; and Sir Robert Burdett, who were all the
company. The usual hour of dining was soon after four,
and the rule of the Club was to have the bill and a bottle
brought in at seven. Till this hour all was jollity and good-
humour, but Mr. Hewet happening to start some conversa-
tion about the best method of preserving game, setting the
laws for that purpose out of the question, Mr. Chaworth and
Lord Byron were of different opinions, Mr. Chaworth insist-
ing on severity against poachers and unqualified persons,
and Lord Byron declaring that the way to have most game
was to take no care of it at all. Mr. Chaworth, in confir-
mation of what he had said, insisted that Sir Charles Sedley
and himself had more game on five acres than Lord Byron
had on all his manors. Lord Byron, in reply, proposed a
bet of 100 guineas, but this was not laid. Mr. Chaworth
then said, that were it not for Sir Charles Sedley's care and
his own. Lord Byron would not have a hare on his estate,
and his Lordship asking with a smile what Sir Charles
Sedley's manors were, was answered by Mr. Chaworth, — •
Nuttall and Bulwell. Lord Byron did not dispute Nuttall,
but added, Bulwell was his, on which Mr. Chaworth, with
some heat, replied : "If you want information as to Sir
Chailes Sedley's manors, he lives at Mr. Cooper's, in Dean
Street, and, I doubt not, will be ready to give you satis-
faction ; and, as to myself, your Lordship knows where to
find me, in Berkeley Row."
The subject was now dropped, and little was said, when
Mr. Chaworth called to settle the reckoning, in doing which
the master of the tavern observed him to be flurried. In a
few minutes Mr. Chaworth, having paid the bill, went out,
and was followed by Mr. Donston, whom Mr. C. asked if
STAR AND GARTER, PALL MALL. 447
he thought he had been short in what he had said, to which
Mr. D. replied, " No ; he had gone rather too far upon so
trifling an occasion, but did not believe that Lord Byron or
the company would think any more of it." Mr. Donston
then returned to the club-room. Lord Byron now came
out, and found Mr. Chaworth still on the stairs : it is doubt-
ful whether his Lordship called upon Mr. Chaworth, or Mr.
Chaworth called upon Lord Byron, but both went down to
the first landing-place — ^having dined upon the second floor — •
and both called a waiter to show an empty room, which the
waiter did, having first opened the door, and placed a small
tallow-candle, which he had in his hand, on the table ; he
then retired, when the gentlemen entered, and shut the door
after them.
In a few minutes the affair was decided : the bell was
rung, but by whom is uncertain : the waiter went up, and
perceiving what had happened, ran down very frightened,
told his master of the catastrophe, when he ran up to the
room, and found the two antagonists standing close together :
Mr. Chaworth had his sword in his left hand, and Lord
Byron his sword in his right ; Lord Byron's left hand was
round Mr. Chaworth, and Mr. Chaworth's right hand was
round Lord Byron's neck, and over his shoulder. Mr. C.
desired Mr. Fynmore, the landlord, to take his sword, and
Lord B. delivered up his sword at the same moment: a
surgeon was sent for, and came immediately. In the mean-
time, six of the company entered the room; when Mr.
Chaworth said that " he could not live many hours ; that he
forgave Lord Byron, and hoped the world would ; that the
affair had passed in the dark, only a small tallow-candle
burning in the roomj that Lord Byron asked him if he
addressed the observation on the game to Sir Charles Sedley
or to him ? — to which he replied, ' If you have anything to
say, we had better shut the door j' that while he was doing
this. Lord Byron bid him draw, and in turning he saw his
448 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Lordship's sword half-drawn, on which he whipped out his
own sword and made the first pass ; that the sword being
through my Lord's waistcoat, he thought that he had killed
him ; and, asking whether he was not mortally wounded,
Lord Byron, while he was speaking, shortened his sword,
and stabbed him in the belly."
When Mr. Mawkins, the surgeon, arrived, he found Mr.
Chaworth sitting by the fire, with the lower part of his
waistcoat open, his shirt bloody, and his- hand upon his
belly. He inquired if he was in immediate danger, and
being answered iu the affirmative, he desired his uncle, Mn
Levinz, might be sent for. In the meantime, he stated to
Mr. Hawkins, that Lord Byron and he (Mr. Chaworth)
entered the room together; that his Lordship said something
of the dispute,. on which he, Mr. C, fastened the door, and
turning round, perceived his Lordship with his sword either
drawn or nearly so ; on which he instantly drew his own
and made a thrust at him, which he thought had wounded
or killed him ; that then perceiving his Lordship shorten his
sword to return the thrust, he thought to have parried it
with his left hand, at which he looked twice, imagining that
he had cut it in the attempt \ that he felt the sword enter
his body, and go deep through his back; that he struggled,
and being the stronger man, disarmed his Loidship, and
expressed his apprehension that he had mortally wounded
him ; that Lord Byron replied by saying something to the
like effect ; adding that he hoped now he would allow him
to be as brave a man as any in the kingdom.
After a little while, Mr. Chaworth seemed to grow
stronger, and was removed to his own house : additional
medical advice arrived but no relief could be given
him ; he continued sensible till his death. Mr. Levinz,
his uncle, novy . arrived with an attorney, to whom Mr.
Chaworth gave very sensible and distinct instructions for
making his will. The will was then executed, and the
attorney, Mr. Partington, committed to writing the last
STAR AND CARTER, PALL MALL. 449
words Mr. Chaworth was heard to say. This writing was
handed to Mr. Levinz, and gave rise to a report that a
paper was written by the deceased, and sealed up, riot to be
opened till the time that Lord Byron should be tried ; but
no paper was written by Mr. Chaworth, and that written by
Mr. Partington was as follows : — " Sunday morning, the
27 th of January, about three of the clock, Mr. Chaworth
said, that my Lord's sword was half-drawn, and that he,
knowing the man, immediately, or as quick as he could,
whipped out his sword, and had the first thrust ; that then
my Lord wounded him, and he disarmed my Lord, who then
said, ' By G , I have as much courage as any man in
England.'"
Lord Byron was committed to the Tower, and was tried
before the House of Peers, in Westminster Hall, on the( i6th
and 17th of April, 1765. Lord Byron's defence was reduced
by him into writing, and read by the clerk. The Peers
present, including the High Steward, declared Lord Byroii,
on their honour, to be not guilty of murder, but of man.
slaughter; with the exception of four Peers, who found him
not guilty generally. On this verdict being given, Lord
Byron was called upon to say why judgment of manslaughter
should not be pronounced upon him. His Lordship
immediately claimed the benefit of the ist Edward
VI. cap. 12, a statute, by which, whenever a Peer was
convicted of any felony for which a commoner might have
Benefit of Clergy, such Peer, on prayiiig the benefit of that
Act, was always to be discharged without, burning in the
hand, or any penal consequence whatever. The claim of
Lord Byron being accordingly allowed, he was forthwith dis-
charged on payment of his fees. This smgular privilege was
supposed to be abrogated by the 7 & 8 Geo. IV. cap. 28,
s. 6, which abolished Benefit of Clergy j but some doubt
arising on the subject, it was positively put an end to. by
the 4 & 5 Vict. cap. aa. (See " Celebrated Trials connected
with the Aristocracy," by Mr. Serjeant Burke.)
r. G
45° CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Mr, Chawprth was the descendant of one of the oldest
houses in England, a branch of which obtained an Irish"
peerage. liis grand-niece, the eveiltual heiress of the
family, was Mgiy Ch^worth,, the 'object of the early unre-
quited love of Lord Byron, the poet. Singul&rly enough^
there was the same degree of relationship between that-
nobleman and the Lord Byron who killed Mr. Chaworth, as
existed be;tween the' latter unfortunate gentleman and Mr.
Chaworth.*
Several stories are told of the liigh charges of the Star and
Garter Tavern, even in the reign of Queen Anne. The
Duke of Ormond, who gave here a dinner to a few friends,
was charged twenty-one. pounds, six shillings, and eight
pence, for four, that is, first and second course,' without wine
or dessert.
From the Connoisseur of i754> we' learn that the foo'ls of
quahty of that, day " drove to the Star and Garter to regale
on macaroni, or piddle with an ortolan at White's or Pontac's."
At the Star and Garter,, in 17.74, was formed the first
Gp,cket Club. Sir Horace Mann, who had promoted
cricket in Kent, and the Duke of Dorset and Lord Tanker-
ville, leaders of the Surrey and Hants Eleven, conjointly'with
other noblemen and gentlemen, formed a committee under
the presidency of Sir William Draper. They met at the Star
and Garter, and laid down the first riiles of cricket, which
very rules, form the basis of the laws of cricket of this day.
Thatched-house Tavern, St. James's-street.
Come and once more together let -Tis greet . . i , J
The long-lost pleasures of St. James's-street. — Tic^ell.. ,
Little more than a century and a half ago the parish of
St. James was described as "all the houses and grounds
comprehended in a - place heretofore called ' St. James's.
Fields' and the confines thereof." Previously to this; the
* Abridged from the " Romance of London," vol. i. pp. 225-232.
THATCHED HOUSE TAVERN, 451
above tavern was xcio&t 'pio\ii!kAy 2l thatched 'house. St.
James's-street dates from 1670 : the poets Waller and Pope"
lived here ; Sir Christopher Wren died herS, in 1723)33
did Gibbon,th€ historian, in 1794,'at Elriisley's, the bdok-
sdkf's, at No. 76, at the comer of Little St. JaineS's-stteet.
FOx lived lifext to Brookes's iii 1781 ; and Lord Byron
lodged at No. 8, in 1811; At the south-west end Was the
St. James's Coffee-house, taken down in j8o6 ; the foreign
and domestic news house of the Tatler, and the "fountain-
head " 6f the Spectator'.. Thus early, the street had a sort of
literaiy fashioi favourable to the growth of taverns and clubs.
The Thatched House, which was taken down in 1844 and
1863, had been for nearly two centuries celebrated for its
club meetings, its large public room, and its public dihners,
especially those of ouir universities and great schools. It
was one of Swift's favourite haunts : in somie birthday verses
he sings :—
The Deanery-house inay well be inatched,
. Under correction,, with the Thatch'd.
The histories of some of the principal Clubs which met
here, will be found in an earlier portion of this voluiiie ; as
the Brothers, Literary, Dilettanti,, and others ; (besides a list,
given in the Appendix.) ■
The iloyal Naval Club held its meetings at the Thatched
House, as did some art societies and kindred associations.
The large club-room faced St. James's-street,, and .when lit in
the evening with wax-ca,ndles, in large old glass chandeliers,
the Dilettanti pictures could be seen from the pavement of the
street, • Beneath the tavern front was a range, of, low-built
shops, including that of Rowland, or Rouland, the fashion-
able coiffeur, who charged five shillings for cutting hair, and
m^de alarge fortune by his "incomparable ^«//if Macassar."
Through the tayem was a passage to Thatched House-court,
iijL the rear; and here, in Catherine- WheelTalley, in -the last
century, lived :the good old, widow Delany,;after the Doctor's
death, as noted in her autobiography, edited by Lady
G G 2
45? CLUB LIFE OF LONDQtl.
Llanover. Some of Mrs. Delany's fashionable friends then
resided in Dean-street, Soho.
Thatched House-court and the alley have been swept
away. Elmsle/s was removed for the site of the Conserva-
tive Club. In an adjoining house lived the famous Betty,
" the queen of apple-women;" whom Mason has thus em-
balmed in his " Heroic Epistle :" —
And patriot Betty fix her fniitshop here.
It was a famous place for gossip. . Walpole says of a story
much about, " I should scruple repeating it, if Betty and the
waiters at Arthm-'s did not talk of it publicly." Again,
"Would you know what officer's on guard in Betty's
fniitshop?"
The Tavern, which has disappeared, was nearly the last
relic of old St James's-street, although its memories survive
in various modem Club-houses, and the Thatched House
will be kept in mind by the graceful sculpture of the Civil
Service Club-house, erected upon a portion of the site.
" The Running Footman," May Fair.
This sign, in Charles-street, Berkeley-square, carries us
back to the days of bad roads, and joumeyiiig at snail's pace,
when the travelling equipage of the nobility required that
one or more men should run in front of the carriage, chiefly
as a mark of the rank of the traveller; th6y were likewise
sent on messages, and occasionally for great distances.
The runhirig footman required to be" a healthy and active
man ; he wore a light black cap, a jockey-coat, and carried
a pole with at the top a hollow ball, in which he kept a
hard-boiled egg and a little white wine, to serve as refresh-
ment on his journey; and this is supposed to be the origin
of the footman's silver-mounted cane. The Duke of Queen's-
berry, who died in 1810, kepta running footman longer than
his compeers in London; and Mr, Thoms, in Notes and
PICCADILLY INNS AND TAVERNS. 453
Queries, relates an amusing anecdote of a man who came
to be hired for the duty by the Duke. His Grace was in
the habit of trying their paces, by seeing how they could run
up and down Piccadilly, he watching them and timing them
from his balcony. The man put ol a livery biefore the trial ;
on one occasion, a candidate having run, stood before the
balcony. " You will do very well for me," said the Duke.
"And your livery will do very well for me," replied the man,
and gave the Duke a last proof of his ability by running away
with it.
The sign in Charles-street represents a young man, dressed
in a kind of Jivery, and a cap with a feather in it ; he carries
the usual pole and is running ; and beneath is, "I am the
only running footman," which may relate to the superior
speed of the runner, and this may be a portrait of a celebrity.
Kindred to the above is the old sign of " The Two
Chairmen," in Warwick-street, Charing Cross,* recalling the
sedans or chairs of Fall Mall ; and there is a similar sign on
Hay Hill.
Piccadilly Inns and Taverns.
Piccadilly was long noticed for the variety and extent of
its Inns and Taverns, although few remain. At the east
end were formerly the Black Bear and White Bear (originally
the Fleece), nearly opposite each other. The Black Bear
was taken down 1820. The White Bear remains : it occurs
in St. Martin's parish-books, 1685 : here Chatelain and
Sullivan, the engravers, died j and Benjamin West, the
* The old Golden Cross Inn, Charing Cross, stood a short distance
west of the present Golden Cross Hotel, No. 452, Strand. Of the
former we read : "April 23, 1643.. It was at this period, by order of
the Conimittee or Commission appointed by the House, the sign of a
tavern, the Golden Cross, at Charing CroSs, was taken down, as super-
stitious and idolatrous. "-^In Suffolk-street, Haymarket, was the Tavern
before which took place " the Calves' "Head Club " riot— See p. 21.
454 tLUB LIFE OF LONDON.' ^
painter^ lodged, the first night after his arrival from Attierica.
StrjTpe mentions the White Horse Cellar in'i;72o ; and the
booking-office of the New White Horse Cellar is to this day
in " the cellar." The Three Kings stables gateway, No^ 75,
had two Corinthian pilasters, stated by Disfkeli to have be-
longed to Clarendon House : " the stable-yard at the back
presents the features'of an old galleried inh'-yard, aii'd it is
noted as the jplace from which- General Palriier started the
first Bath mail-coach." (J. W. Archer : " Vestiges," patt vi.)
The Hercules' Pillars (a sign which meant that no habitation
was to be found beyond it) stood a few yards west of
Hamilton-place, and has beeii rhentiohed. The Hercules'
Pillars,' and another roadside taVerh, the Triumphant Car,
were standing about 1797, and were mostly frequented by
soldiers. Two other Piccadilly inns, the White Horse and
Half Moon, both of considerable extent, have given names
to streets. ■ ' ■
The "older and more celebrated house of entertainment
was Piccadilly Hall, which appears to have been built by
one Robert Baker, in " the fields behind the- Mews," leased
to him by St. Martin's parish, and" sold by his widow to
Colonel Panton, who buUt Panton-square'and Panton-street.
Lord Clarendon, in his " History of the Rebellion," spealks
of " Mr. Hydfe going to a house called Piccadilly for enter-
tainment and gaming :" this house, with its gravel walks
and bowling-greens, extending from the comer of Windmill-
street and the site of Panton-square, as shown in Porter arid
Faithome's Map, 1658. Mr. Cunningham found (see
"Handbook," and edit. p. 396), in the parish accounts of
St. Martin's, " Robt. Backer, of PickadiUey Halle f and the
receipts for Lammas money paid for the premises as late as
1676. Sir John Suckling, the poet; was one of the fre-
quenters ; and, Aubrey remembered Suckling's "sisters
coming to the Peccadillo bowling-green, crying, for the feare
he should lose all their portions." The house was taken
down about 1685 : a tennis-court in the rear remained to
PICCADILLY TNNS AND TAVERNS. 455
our time, upon the site of the Argyll Rooms, Great Wind-
mill-street. The Society of Antiquaries possess a . printed
proclamation {temp. Charles II. 1671) against the increase
of buildings in Windmill-fields and, the fields adjoining Sohp;
and in the Plan of 1658, Great Windmill-street consists of
Straggling houses, and a windmill in a field west.
Colonel Panton, who is tiamed above, was a celebrated
gamester of the time of the Restoration, and in one night, 'it
is said, he won as many thousands as purchased him an
estate of above 1500/. a year. "After this goOd. fortune,'
says Lucas, "he had such an aversion against all manner' of
games, that he would never handle cards or dice again ; but
lived very handsomely on his winnings to his dying, day,
which was in the year i68*. He was the last proprietor of
Piccadilly Hall, and was in possession of land on the site of
the streets and buildings which bear his name, as early as
the year 1664. Yet we remember to have seen it stated
that Panton-street was named from a particular kind of
horse-shoe called 3. f anion; and from its contiguity to the
Haymarket, this origin was long credited.
, At the north-east end of the Haymarket stood the Gaming-
house biiilt by the barber of the Earl of Pemboke, and hence
called Shaver's Hall : it is described by Garrard, in a letter
to Lord Strafibrd in 1635, as "a, new Spring Gardens,
erected in the fields' beyond the Mews ;" its tennis-court
remains in james-street.
From a Survey of the Premises, made in 1650, we gather
that Shaver's Hall was strongly built of brick, and covered
with lead : its large " seller " was divided into six rooms ;
above these four rooms, and the same in the first storey, to
which was a balcony, with a prospect southward to the
.bowling-alleys. In the second storey were six rooms ; and
over the same a walk, leaded, and enclosed with rails, " very
curiously carved and, ■wrought," as was also the sta.ircase,
throughout the house. On the west were large kitchens and
coal-house, with lofts over, " as also one faire Tennis Court,"
4S6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
of brick, tiled, " well accommodated with all things fitting for
the same ;" with upper rooms ; and at the entrance gate to
the upper bowling-green, a parlour-lodge ; and a double
flight of steps descending to the lower bowling alley ; there
was still another bowling alley, and an orchard-wall, planted
with choice fruit-trees; "as also one pleasant banqueting
house, and one other faire and pleasant Roome, called the
Greene Roome, and one other conduit-house, and a other
Turrets adjoininge to the walls." The ground whereon
the said buildings stand, together with a fayre Bowling
Alleys, orchard gardens, gravily walks, and other green
walks, and Courts and Courtyards, containinge, by estiraa-
cion, 3 acres and 3 qrs., lying betweene a Roadway leading
from Charinge Crosse to Knightsbridge west, now in the
possession of Captayne Geeres, and is worth per ann. cl"."*
Islington Taverns.
If you look at a Map of London, in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, the openness of the northern suburbs is very re-
markable. CornhUl was then a clear space, and the ground
thence to Bishopsgatei-street was occupied as gardens. The
Spitalfields were entirely open, and Shoreditch church was
nearly the last building of London in that direction. Moor-
fields were used for drying linen ; while cattle grazed, and
archers shot, in Finsbury Fields, at the verge of which were
three windmills. On the western side of Smithfield was a
row of trees. Goswell-street was a lonely road, and Islington
church stood in the distance, with a few houses and gardens
near it. St. Giles's was also a small village, with open
country north and west.
The ancient Islington continued to be a sort of dairy-farm
for the metropolis. Like her father, Henry VIII., Elizabeth
* In Jermyn-street, Haymarket, was the One Tun Tavern, a haunt
of Sheridan's; and, upon the site of "the Little Theatre" is the Cafe
de I'Europe.
ISLINGTON TAVERNS. 457
paid frequent visits to this neighbourhood, where some
wealthy commoners dwelt ; and her partiality to the place
left many evidences in old houses, and spots traditionally
said to have been visited by the Queen, whose delight it was
to go among her people.
Islington retained a few of its Elizabethan houses to our
times ; and its rich dairies were of like antiquity : in the
entertainment given to Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth
Castle, in 1575, the Squier Minstrel of Middlesex glorifies
Islington with the motto, " Lac caseiis infans ;" and it is still
noted for its cow-keepers. It was once as famous for its
cheese-cakes as Chelsea for its buns ; and among its other
notabilities were custards and stewed " pruans,'' its mineral
spa and its ducking-ponds ; Ball's Pond dates from the time
of Charles I. At the lower end of Islington, in 16 11, were
eight inns, principally supported by summer visitors :
Hogsdone, Islington, and Tothnam Court,
For cakes and creame had then no small resort.
— Wither' s "Britain's Remembrancer," 1628.
Among the old inns and public-houses were the Crown,
apparently of the reign of Henry VII., and the old Qneen's
Head, of about the same date :
The Queen's Head and Crown in Islington town.
Bore, for its brewing! the brightest renown.
Near the Green, the Duke's Head, was kept by Topham,
" the strong man of Islington ;'' in Frog-lane, the Barley-
mow, where George Morland painted; at the Old Parr's
Head, in Upper-street, Henderson the tragedian first acted ;
the Three Hats, near the turnpike, was taken down in 1839;
and of the Angel, originally a galleried inn, a drawing may
be seen at the present inn. Timber gables and rudely-
carved brackets are occasionally to be seen in house-fronts ;
also here and there an old " house of entertainment," which
with the little, remaining of " the Green," remind one of
-Islington village.
458 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The Old Queen's Head was the finest: specimen in the
neighbourhood of the domestic architecture of the reign of
Henry YII. It consisted of three storeys projecting over
each other in front, with bay windows supported by
brackets and figures carved in wood. The entrance was by
H central porch,:. supported by caiyatides . of oak, bearing
Ionic scrolls, i :To the left was the Oak Parlour, with carved
mantelpiece, of chest-like form.; and caryatid jambs, support-
ing a slab sculptured with the story of Diana and Actseon.
The ceiling was a shield, bearing J.M. in a glory, with
cherubim, two heads of Roman emperors, with fish, flowers,
and other figures, within wreathed borders, with bosses of
acorns.
White Conduit House was first built in the fields, in the
reign of Charles I., and was named from a stone conduit,
1641, which supplied the Charterhouse with water by a
leaden pipe. The tavern was originally a small ale and
cake house : Sir William Davenant describes a City wife
going to the fields to " sop her cake in milke ;" and Gold-
smith, speaks, of tea-drinking parties.here with hot rolls and
butter. White Conduit rolls were nearly as famous as
Chelsea buns. The Wheel Pond close by was a noted
place for duck-hunting.
In May, 1760, a poetical description of White Conduit
House appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine. A descrip-
tion of the old place, in 1774, presents a general picture of
the tea-garden of that period : " It is formed into walk's,
prettily disposed. At the end of the principal one is a
painting which seems to render it (thewalk) in appearance
longer than it really is. In the centre of- the garden is a
fish-pond. There are boxes for company, curiously cut into
hedges, adorned with Flemish and other paintings. There
are two handsome tea-rooms, and several inferior ones." To
these were added a new dancing and tea-saloon, called the
Apollo Room. In 1826, the gardens were opened as a
minor Vauxhall; and here the charming vocalist, Mrs.
ISLINGTON TAVERNS.. .459
Bland, last sang in public. In 183a, the- original tavern
was taken down, and rebuilt upon a much larger plan;: 1 in
its principal room 2000 persons could dine. In 1849 'these
premises were also taken down, the tavern rebuilt upon a
smaller scale, and the garden-ground let on building leases.
Cricket was played here by the White Conduit Club, as
early as 1799,; and one of its attendants, Thomas Lord,
■ subsequently established the Marylebone Club.
White Conduit House was for some years kept by Mr.
Christopho' Barthdlomew, at one time worth 50,000^ He
had some fortunate hits in the State Lottery, and celebrated
his good fortune by a public breakfast in his gardens. ' He
was known to "spend upwards of 2000 guineas a day for
insiurance : fortune forsook him, and he passed the. latter
years of his life in great povertyvpartly siibsisting on charity.
But his gambling propensity led him, in 1807, to purchase
with a friend a sixteenth of a lottery-ticket, which was dtawn
a prize of 210,000/., with his moiety of which he purchased a
small ^.nnuity, which he soon sold, and died in distress in
1809! "■ ■ ' i
Bagnigge Wells, on the banks of the Fleet brook, between
Clerkenwell and old St. Pahcras church, was another tavefn
of this class. We remember its concert-room and organ, its
grottoes, fountain and fishpond, its trim trees, its grotesque
costumed figures, and its bust of Nell Gw)mne tp support
the tradition that she had a house here.
A comedy of the seventeenth century has its scene laid at
the Saraceii's Head, an old hostelrie, which in Queen Mary's
reign had been hallowed by secret Protestant devotion, and
stood between River Lane and the City Road.
Highbury Barn, upon the site of the barn of the monks of
Canonbury, was another noted tavern.* Nearly opposite
Canonbury, Tower are the remains of a last-century tea-
* Canonbury Tavern was in the middle of the last century a small
ale-house. It was taken by a Mr. Lane, who had been a private soldi^:
46o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
garden ; and in Bamsbury is a similar relic. And on the
entrance of a coppice of trees is Hornsey Wood House, a
tavern with a delightful prospect.
Islington abounds in chalybeate springs, resembling the
Tunbridge Wells water ; one of which was rediscovered in
1683, in the garden of Sadler's music-house, subsequently
Sadler's Wells Theatre ; and at the Sir Hugh Myddelton's
Head tavern was formerly a conversation-picture with
twenty-eight portraits of the Sadler's Wells Club. In Spa
Fields was held "Gooseberry Fair," where the stalls of
gooseberry-fool vied with the " threepenny tea-booths," and
the beer at " my Lord Cobham's Head," which denotes the
site of the mansion of Sir John Oldcastle, the Wickliffite,
burnt in 141 7.
Copenhagen House.
This old suburban tavern, which stood in Copenhagen
Fields, Islington, was cleared away in forming the site of the
New Cattle Market.
The house had a curious history. In the time of Nelson,
the historian of Islington (1811), it was a house of con-
siderable resort, the situation affording a fine prospect over
the western part of the metropolis. Adjoining the house
was a small garden, furnished with seats and tables for the
accommodation of company ; and a fives ground. The
principal part of Copenhagen House, although much altered,
was probably as old as the time of James I., and is tradition-
ally said to have derived its name from having been the
he improved the house, but its celebrity was gained by the widow Sutton,
who kept the place from 1785 to 1808, and built new rooms, and laid
out the bowling-green and tea-gardens. An Assembly was first estab-
lished here in the year 1 8 10. Nearly the entire premises, which then
occupied about four acres, were situated within the old park wall of the
Priory of St. Bartholomew ; it formed, indeed, a part of the eastern
side of the house ; the ancient fish-pond was filso connected with the
.grounds. The Tavern has been rebuilt.
COPENHAGEN HOUSE. 461
residence of a Danish prince or ambassador during the
Great Plague of 1665. Hone, in 1838, says : " It is certain
that Copenhagen House has been Ucensed for the sale of
beer, wine, and spirits, upwards of a century ; and for
refreshments, and as a tea-house, with garden and ground
for skittles and Dutch pins, it has been greatly resorted to by
Londoners." The date of this hostelry must be older than
stated by Hone. Cunningham says : " A public-house or
tavern in the parish of Islington, is called Copenhagen in
the map before Bishop Gibson's edition of Camden, 1695."
About the year 1770 this house was kept by a person
named Harrington. At his decease the business was con-
tinued by his widow, wherein she was assisted for several
years by a young woman from Shropshire. This female
assistant afterwards married a person named Tomes, from
whom Hone got much information respecting Copenhagen-
house. In 1780 — the time of the London riots — 2. body of
the rioters passed on their way to attack the seat of Lord
Mansfield at Caen-wood ; happily, they passed by without
doing any damage, but Mrs. Harrington and her maid were
so much alarmed that they dispatched a man to Justice
Hyde, who sent a party of soldiers to garrison the place.,
where they remained until the riots were ended. From this
spot the view of the nightly conflagrations in the metropolis
must have been terrific. Mrs. Tomes says she saw nine fires
at one time. On the New Year's-day previous to this, Mrs.
Harrington was not so fortunate. After the family had
retired to rest, a party of burglars forced the kitchen window,
and mistaking the salt-box, in the chimney-corner, . for a
man's head, fired a ball through it. They then ran upstairs
with a dark lantern, tied the servants, burst the lower panel
of Mrs. Harrington's room door — while she secreted 50/.
between her bed and: the mattresses — and three of them
rushed to her bed-side, armed with a cutlass, crowbar, and a
pistol, while a fourth kept watch outside. They demanded
her money, and as she denied that she had any> they wrenched
462 CLUB LIF£ OF LONDON.
her drawers open with the crowbar, refusing to use the keys
^e offered to them; In these they found about iv/. belong-'
ing to her daughter, a little child, lyhomilihey threatened to
murder unless she ceased crying : while they packed up all
th6 plate, linen, and clothes, which j they carried oiE They
went into the cellar, set all the ale barrels running, broke the
necWs of the wine bottles, spilt the otHe* liquors, and slashed
a round of beef with their cutlasses; From this wanton
destnictioh they "returned to the kitchen, where they ate,'
drank, and sung ; arid eventually frightened Mrs. Harrington'
into delivering up the 50/. she had secreted, and it was with
difficulty she escaped with her life. Rewards were oifered
by Government and the parish of Islington for the appre-
hension of the robbers ; and in May following one of them,
named Clarkson, was discovered, and hopes of mercy
tendered to him if he would discover his accomplices. This
man was a watchmaker of Clerkenwell : the other 'three' were
tradesnifen. They were tried and executed,' and Clarkson
pardoned. He was, however, afterwards executed for
another robbery. In a sense, this robbery was fortunate to
Mrs. Harrington. A subscription was raised, which more
than covered the loss, and the curiosity of the Londoners
induced them to throng to the scene of the robbery. So
great was the increase of business, that it became necessary
to enlarge the premises. Soon afterwards the' house was
celebrated for fives-playing. This game was oin cAA hand
tennis, axidi IS a very ancient game. This last addition was
almost accidental. "I made the first fives-ball," says Mrs.
Tomes, "that was ever thrown up against 'Copenhagen
House. One Hickman, a butcher at Highgate^ a country-
man of mine, called, and, seeing me counting, we talked
about our country sports, arid, amongst' the rest, ^t/^K -I
told him we'd have a game some day. I laid do'wn the
stone myself, and against he came again made a ball'. I
struck the ball the first blow, he gave it the second — and so
we played — ^and as iJiefe was company, they liked the sjjorl^
TOPffAM, AND HIS TAVERNS. 463
and it gcJt talked of." This was the beginning of fives-play
which became so famous at Copenhaigen House.
TophaiHj the Strong. Man, and his Taverns.
In Upper-street, Islington, was formerly'a house with the
sign of the Duke's Head, at the south-east corner of Gadd's
Row, (now St. Alban's Place,) which was remarkable, towards
the middle of the last century, on account of its laridlord^
Thomas Topham, "the strong man of Islington." He was
brought up to the trade of a carpenter, but alaandoned it
soon after his apprenticeship had expired ; and about the
age of twenty-four became the host of the Red Lion, near
the old Hospital of St. LukCj in which" house he failed.
When he had attailj^d his full growth, his stature was about
five feet ten inchesj'and he soon began to give proof of his
superior strength and muscular power. The first public
exhibition of his extraordinary strength waS that of pulling
against a horse, lying upon his back, and placing his feet
against the dwarf wall that divided Upper and Lower
Moorfields.
By the strength of his fingers, he rolled up a very strong
and large pewter dish, which was placed among the curiosi-
ties of the British' Museum, marked near the edge, " April 3,
1737, Thomas Topham, of London, carpenter, /rolled up
this dish (made of the hardest pewter) by the streffgth of his
hands, in the.presence of Dr. John Desaguliers," etc. He
bro'ke seven or eight pieces of a tobacqo-pipe,. by the . f6rce
of his middle finger, having laid them oh his first arid third
fingers.' Having thrust the bowl of a strong tobacco-pipe
under his garter, his legs being bent, he broke it t6 pieces
by the tendons of his hams, without altering the position of
his legs. Another, bowl 'of this kind , he broke (between his
first and second finger, by pressing them together side\yays.
He took an iron Vtijhen ppker,_ about a yardlorig,' and three
inches round, ind bent it nearly to aright angle,' by strikmg
464 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
upon his bare left arm between the elbow and the wrist.
Holding the ends of a poker of like size in his hands, and
the middle of it against the back of his neck, he brought both
extremities of it together before him j and, what was yet more
difficult, pulled it almost straight again.' He broke a rope
of two inches in circumference.; though from his awkward
manner, he was obliged to exert four times more strength
than was necessary. He lifted a rolling stone of eight
hundred pounds' weight with his hands only, standing in a
frame above it, and taking hold of a chain fastened thereto.
But his grand feat was performed in. Coldbath Fields,
May 28, 1 741, in commemoration of the taking of Porto
Bello, by Admiral Vernon. At this time Topham was land-
lord of the Apple-tree, nearly facing the entrance to the
House of Correction ; here he exhibited the exploit of
lifting three hogsheads of water, weighing one thousand
eight hundred and thirty-one pounds : he klso pulled against
one horse, and would have succeeded against two, or even
four, had he taken a proper position ; but in pulling against
two, he was jerked from his seat, and had one of his knees
much hurt. Admiral Vernon was present at the above
exhibition, in the presence of thousands of spectators ; and
there is a large print of the strange scene.
Topham subsequently removed to Hog-lane, Shoreditch.
His wife proved unfaithful to him, which so distressed him
that he stabbed her, and so mutilated himself that he died,
in the flower of his age. ^*
Many years since, there were several signs in the metro-
polis, illustrative of Topham's strength : the last was one in
East Smithfield, where he was represented as " the Strong
Man pulling against two Horses."
The Castle Tavern, Holborn.
This noted tavern, described by Stiype, a century and a
half ago, as a house of considerable trade, has been, in our
While Conduit House, 1747.
( The Conduit in Front. )
Vaiixhall Assembly and Gardens, 1751.
THE CASTLE TAVERN, HOLBOR&. 465
time, the head-quarters of the Prize Ring, kept by two of
its heroes, Tom Belcher and Tom Spring. Here was in-
stituted the Daffy Club ; and the long room was adorned
with portraits of pugilistic heroes, including Jem Belcher,
Burke, Jackson, Tom Belcher, old Joe Ward, Dutch Sam,
Gregson, Humphreys, Mendoza, Cribb, Molyneux, GuUey,
Randall, Turner, Martin, Harmer, Spring, Neat, Hickman,
Painter, SCToggins, Tom Owen, etc. ; and among other
sporting prints, the famous dog. Trusty, the present of Lord
Camelford to Jem Belcher, and the victor in fifty battles.
In " Cribb's Memorial to Congress " is this picture of the
great room : —
Lent Friday night a bang-up set
Of milling blades at Belcher's met,
All high-bred heroes of the Ring,
Whose very gammon would delight one ;
Who, nurs'd beneath the Fancy's wing,
Show all her feathers but the white one.
Brave Tom, the Champion, with an air
Almost Corinthian, took the chair,
And kept the coves in quiet tune,
By showing such a fist of mutton
As on a point of order soon
Would take the shine from Speaker Sutton,
And all the lads look'd gay and bright,
And gin and genius flashed about ;
And whosoe'er grew impolite.
The well-bred Charapioh serv'd him out.
In 1828, Belcher retired from the tavern, and was suc-
ceeded by Tom Spring (Thomas Winter), the immediate
successor of Cribb, as Champion of England. Spring
prospered at the Castle many years. He died August 17,
185 1, in his fifty-sixth year; he was highly respected, and
had received several testimonials of public and private
esteem ; among which were these pieces of plate :— ^i. The
Manchester Cup, presented in 182 1. 2. The Hereford
Cup, 1823. 3. A noble tankard and a purse, value upwards
H H
466 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
of five hundred pounds. 4. A silver goblet, from Spring's
early patron, Mr. Sant
Spring's figure was an extremely fine one, and his face
and fprehe9.d most rema,rkable. His brow had something
rOf the Greek Jupiter in it, expressing command, energy, de-
termina,tipn, aTi,d cool courage. Its severity was relieved by
;the. lo^er jpart of his countenance, the features Jof which
, denoted mildness and playPalness. His actual height was
fi,ve feet eleven inches and a half; but, he' could stretch his
neck so as to make his admeasurement more than six feet.
Marylebone and Padding^on Taverns.
Smith, in his very amusing " Book for a Rainy Day," tells
us that in 1772, beyond Portland Chapel, (now St. Paul's,)
the highway was irregular, with, here and there a bank of
separation ; and having crossed the New: Road, there was a
turnstile, at the entrance of a meadow leading to a little old
public-house — the Queen's Head and Artichoke — an odd
association : the sign was much ' weather-beaten, though
perhaps once a tolerably good portrait of Queen Elizabeth :
the house was reported to have been kept by one of Her
Majesty's gardeners.
A little beyond was another turnstile opening also into
the fields, over which was a walk to the Jew's Harp Tavern
and Tea Gardens. It consisted, pf a large upper room,
ascended by an outside staircase for the accommodation of
the company on ball-nights. • There were a semicircular
enclosure of boxes for tea and ale drinkers, and tables and
seats for the smokers, guarded by. deal-board soldiers be-
tween every box, painted in proper colours. There were
trap-ball ^nd tennis-grounds, and; skittle-grounds. South of
the tea-g£irdens were suminer-houses and gardens, where the
tenant migtit be seen on Sunday evening, in a bright scarlet
waistcoat, ruffled shirt, and silver shoe-buckles, comfortably
taking his tea with his family, honouring a Seven Dials friend
MARYLEBONE AND PADDINGTON TAVERNS. 467
with a nod on his peregrination to the famed Wells of
Kilburn. Such was the suburban rural enjoyment ot .a
century since on the borders of Marylebone Park.
There is a capital story told of Mr. Speaker Onslow, who
when he could escape from the heated atmosphere of the
House of Commons, in his long service of thirty-three years,
used to retire to the Jew's Harp. He dressed, himself in
olain attirej and preferred taking his seat in the chimney-
ioraer of the kitchen,- where he took part in the passing
joke and ordinary concerns of the landlord, his family and
customers ! He continued this practice for a year or two,
and thus ingratiated himself with his host and his family,
who, not knowing his name, called him " the gentleman,"
but, from his familiar manners, treated him as one of them,
selves. It happened, however, one day, that the landlord
of the Jew's Harp was walking along Parliament street,
when he met the Speaker, in his state-coach, going up with
an address to the throne ; and looking narrowly at the
chief personage, he was astonished and confounded at
recognising the features of the gentleman, his constant
customer. He hiuried home and communicated the extra-
ordinary intelligence to his wife and family, all of whom
were disconcerted at the liberties which, at different times,
they had taken with so important a person. In the evening,
Mr. Onslow came as usual to the Jew's Harp, with his holi-
day face and manners, and prepared to take his seat, but
found everything in a state of peculiar preparation, and the
manners of' the landlord and his wife changed from in-
difference and. familiarity to form and obsequiousness : the
children were not allowed to climb upon him, and pull his
wig as heretofore, and the servants were kept at a distance.
He, however, took no notice of the change, but, finding that
his name and rank had by some means been discovered, he
paid his reckoning, civilly took his departure, and never
visited the house afterwards.
The celebrated Speaker is buried in the family vault of
H H 2
468 CLVB LIFE OF LONDON.
the OnslOws, at Merrow ; and in Trinity Church, Guildford,
is a memorial of him — " the figure of the deceased in a
Roman habit" and he is resting upon volumes of the Votes
and Journals of the House of Commons. The monument
is overloaded with inscriptions and armorial displays : we
suspect that " the gentleman " of the Jew's Harp chimney-
corner would rather that such indiscriminate ostentation had
been spared, especially " the Roman habit." If we remem-
ber rightly, Speaker Onslow presented to the people of
Merrow, for their church, a cedar-wood pulpit, which the
Churchwardens ordered to be painted white 1
To return to the taverns. Wilson, our great landscape
painterj was fond of playmg at skittles, and frequented the
Green Man public-house, in the New-road, at the end of
Norton-street, originally known under the appellation of the
" Farthing Pye-house ;" where bits of mutton were put into a
crust shaped like a pie, and actually sold for a farthing.
This house was kept by a facetious man named Price, of
whom there is a mezzotinto portrait : he was an excellent
salt-box player, and frequently accompanied the famous
Abel, when playing on the violoncello. Wilkes was a fre-
quenter of this house to procure votes for Middlesex, as it
was visited by many opulent freeholders.
The Mother Redcap, at Kentish Town, was a house of no
small terror to travellers in former times. It has been
stated that Mother Redcap was the " Mother Damnable "
of Kentish Town ; and that it was at her house that tl.e
notorious Moll Cutpurse, the highwaywoman of the time of
Oliver Cromwell, dismounted, and frequently lodged.
Kentish Town has had some of its old taverns rebuilt.
Here was the Castle Tavern, which had a Perpendicular
stone chimney-piece ; the house was taken down in 1849 :
close to its southern wall was a sycamore planted by Lord
Nelson, when a boy, at the entrance to his uncle's cottage;
the tree has been spared. Opposite were the old Assembly
rooms, taken down in 1852 ; here was a table with an
MARYLEBONE AND PADDINGTON TAVERNS. 469
inscription by an invalid, who recovered his health by walk-
ing to this spot every morning to take his breakfast in frort
of the house.
Bowling-greens were also among the celebrities of Mary-
lebone : where, says the grave John Locke (" Diary," 1679),
a curious stranger "may see several persons of quality
bowling, two or three times a week, all the summer." The
bowling-green of the Rose of Normandy Tavern and Gaming-
house in High-street is supposed to be that referred to in
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's memorable line ; and it is
one of the scenes of Captain Macheath's debaucheries, in
Gay's Beggar's Opera.
The Rose was built some 230 years ago, and was the
oldest house in Marylebone parish : it was originally a
detached building, used as a house of entertainment in con-
nection with the bowling-green at the back; and in 1659
the place was described as a square brick wall, set with
fruit-trees, gravel walks, and the bowling-green ; " all except
the first, double tetwith quickset hedges, full-grown, and
kept in excellent order, and indented like town walls." In
a map of the Duke of Portland's estate, of 1708, there are
shown two bowling-greens, one near the top of High-street,,
and abutting on the grounds of the Old Manor House;
the other at the back of this house : in connection with the
latter was the Rose Tavern, once much frequented by
persons of the first rank, but latterly in much disrepute, and
supposed to be referred to by Pennant, who, when speak-
ing of the Duke of Buckingham's minute description oF
the house afterwards the Queen's Palace, says : " He has
omitted his constant visits to the noted Gaming-house at
Marybone; the place of assemblage of all the infamous
sharpers of the time •" to whom his Grace always gave a
dinner at the conclusion of the season ; and his parting
toast was, " May as many of us as remain unhanged next-
spring meet here again."
These Bowling-greens were afterwards incorporated with
470 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
the well-known Marylebone Gardens, upon the site of which
are now built Beaumont-street, part of Devonshire-streety
and Devonshire place. The principal entrance was in
High-street. Pepys was here in 1688: " Then we abroad
to Marrowbone, and there walked in the Gardens : the first
time I was ever there, and a pretty place it is;" In the
London Gazette, 1691, we read of "Long's Bowling-green
at the Rose, at Marylebone, half a mile distant from
London." The Gardens were at first opened gratis to all
classes J after the addition of the bowling-grefens, the company'
became more select, by one shilling entrance money being
charged, an equivalent being allowed in viands.
An engraving of 1 761, shows the Gardens in their fullest
splendour : the centre walk had rows of trees^ with irons for
the lamps in the stems; on either side; latticed alcoves;
and on the right, the bow-fronted orchestra with balustrades,
supported by columns ; with a projecting roof, to keep the
musicians and singers free from rain ; on the left is a room
for balls and Suppers. In 1763, the Gardens were taken by
Lowe, the singer; he kept them until 1769, when he con-
veyed the property by assignment to his creditors ; the
deed we remember to have seen in Mr. Sampson Hodgkin-
sbn's Collection at Acton Green ; from it we learn that the
premises of -Rysbrack, th6 sculptor, were formerly part of
the Gardens. Nan Cattley and Signor Storace were among
the singers. James Hook, father of Theodore - Hook, com-
posed many songs for the Gardens ; and Dr. Ame, catches
and glees ; and under his direction was played Handel's
miisic, followed by fireworks ; and in 1772, a' model-picture '
of- Mount Etna, in eruption. Burlettas from Shakspeare
were recited here in 1774. In r 775, Baddeley, the comedian,
gave here his Modern Magic Lantern, including Punch's
Election; next, George Saville Carey his Lecture on
Mimicry; arid in 1776, fantoccini, sleight-' of hand, and
representations of the Boulevards at Paris arid Pyra;mids of
Egypt
MARYLEBONE AND PADDING^ON TAVERNS. 471
Chatterton wrote for the Gardens The Revenge, a burletta,
the manuscript of- which, together witii Chatterton's receipt,
given to Henslow, the proprietor of the Gardens, for the
amount paid for the drama, was found by Mr. tjpcott, at a
cheesemonger's shop, in the City \ it was published, but its
authenticity was at the time doubted by many eminent
critics. {Cry^t, November, 1827.)
Eaddington was long noted for its old Taverns. The
White Lion, Edgware-road, dates 1524, the year when hops
were first imported. At the Red Lion, near the Harrow-road,
tradition says, Shakspeare acted ; and another Red Lion,
formerly near the Harrow-road bridge over the Bourn, is
described in an inquisition of Edward VI. In this road is
also an ancient Pack-horse; and the Wheatsheaf, Edgware-
rpad, was a favourite resort of Ben Jonson.*
' Kilburn Wells, a noted tea-drinking tavern and garden,
sprang up from the fame of tjie spring of mineral water
there. , ,
Bayswater had, within memory, its tea-garden taverns,
the most extensive of which were the " physic gardens " of
Sir John Hill, who here cultivated his medicinal plants, and
prepared from them his tinctures, essences, etc. The ground
is now the site of noble mansions. The BaysVirater springs^
reservoirs,' and conduits, in olden times, brought here
thousands of pleasure-seekers ; as did Shepherd's Bush, with"
its rural name. Acton, with its wells of rnineral water, about
the middle of the last century, were in high repute ; the
assembly-robrh was ' then a place of great fashionable re-
sort, biit on its decline was converted into tenements. The
two noted taverns^ the Hfits, at Ealing, were much resorted '
to in the last century, and early in the preSerit. '''\
* Robins's "Paddington, Past and Present."
472
Kensington and Brompton Taverns.
Kensington, on the Great Western-road, formerly had its
large inns. The coflfee-house west of the Palace Road was
much resorted to as a tea-drinking place, handy to the
gardens.
Kensington, to this day, retains its memorial of the resi-
dence of Addison, at Holland House, from the period of his
marriage. The thoroughfare from the Kensington Road to
Netting Hill is named Addison Road. At Holland House
are shown the table upon which the Essayist wrote ; his
jeputed portrait ; and the chamber in which he died.
It has been commonly stated and believed that Addison's
.tnarriage with the Countess of Wanvick was a most unhappy
■ match; and that, to drown his sorrow, and escape from his
i termagant wife, he would often slip away from Holland
House to the White Horse Inn, which stood at the corner
of Lord Holland's Lane, and on the site of the present
Holland Arms Inn. Here Addison would enjoy his favourite
jjish of a fillet of veal, his bottle, and perhaps a friend. He
is also stated to have had another way of showing his spite
,to the Countess, by withdrawing the company from Button's
-Cofiee-house, set up by her Ladyship's old servant. More-
-over, Addison is accused of having taught Dryden to drink, so
■^s to hastqp his end: how doubly " glorious" old John must
liave been in his cups. Pope also states that Addison kept
such late hours that he was compelled to quit his company,
But both these anecdotes are from Spence and are doubted ;
and they have done much injury to Addison's character.
Miss Aikin in her "Life of Addison," endeavours to invalidate
these imputations, by reference to the sobriety of Addison's
early life. He had a remarkably sound constitution, and
could, probably, sit out his companions, and stop short of
actual intoxication ; indeed, it was said that he was only
warmed into the utmost brilliancy of table conversation, by
KENSmCTON AND BROMPTON TA VERNS. 473
the time that Steele had rendered himself nearly unfit for it.
Miss Aikin refers to the tone and temper, the correctness of
taste and judgment of Addison's writings, in proof of
his sobriety ; and doubts whether a man, himself stained
with the vice of intoxication, would have dared to stig-
matize it as in his s69th Spectator. The idea that
domestic unhappiness led him to contract this dreadful
habit is then repudiated; and the opposite conclusion
supported by the bequest of his whole property to his
lady. " Is it conceivable," asks Miss Aikin, " that any man
would thus 'give and hazard all he had,' even to his
precious only child, in compliment to a woman who should
have rendered his last years miserable by her pride and
petulance, and have driven him out from his home, to pass
his comfortless evenings in the gross indulgence of a tavern?"
Our amiable biographer, therefore, equally discredits the
stories of Addison's unhappy marriage, and of his intem-
perate habits.
The White Horse was taken down many years since.
The tradition of its being the tavern frequented by Addison
was common in Kensington when Faulkner printed his
" History," in 1820.
There was a celebrated visitor at Holland House who,
many years later, partook of " the gross indulgence." Sheri-
dan was often at Holland House in his latter days ; and
Lady Holland told Moore that he used to take a bottle of
wine and a book up to bed with him always ; the former
alone intended for use. In the morning, he breakfasted in
bed, and had a little brandy or rum in his tea or coffee ;
made his appearance between one and two, and pretending
important business, used to set out for town, but regularly
stopped at the Adam and Eve public-house for a dram, and
there ran up a long bill, which Lord Holland had to pay.
This was the old roadside inn, long since taken down.
When the building for the Great Exhibition of 18.51 was
in course of construction, Alexis Soyer, the celebrated cook
474 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
from the Reform Club, hired for a term, Gore House,- and
converted Lady Blessingtoh's Wiell-appomted mansion and
grounds into a sort. of \xigQ restaurant,. yfiiv^ our poetical
cook named "the Symposium." The house was ill plannedfor
the purpose, and underwent much grotesque decoration and. -
bizarre embellishment, to meet Soyer's somewhat unorthodox
taste; for his chief aim was to show the public " something
they had never seen before." The designation of the place
— ^Symposium — led to a dangerous joke : "Ah ! I under-
stand," said a wag, " impose-on-'em." Sbyer was horrified,
and implored the joker not to name his witticism upon
'Change in the City, but he disregarded the restaurateur's
request, and the pun was often repeated between Cornhill
and Kensington.
In the reconstruction and renovation of the place, Soyet
was assisted by his friend Mr. George Augustus Sala, who,
some years after, when he edited Tefnple Bar, described in
his very clever manner, what he saw and thought, whilst for
" many moons he slept, and ate, and drank, and walked,
and talked, in Gore Houses surrounded by the very strangest
of company " ; —
From February to mid-Majch a curious medley o£ carpenters, scene-
painters, plumbers, glaziers, gardeners, town-travellers for ironmongers,
wine-merchants, and drapers, held high carnival in -the place. By-arid-
by came diikes and duchesses, warriors and statesmen, ambassadors,
actors, artists, authors, .quack-doclors, baHet-dancets,, journalists, Indian
princes, Irish; members, nearly all that was odd and ajl that; was dis-
tinguished, native or foreign, in London town. They wandered up and
down tlie staircases, and in and out of the saloons, quizzing, and talking,
ani laughing, and flirting sometimes in sly comers. They signed then:
names in a big book, blazing with gold and morocco, which lay among
shavings on a carpenter's bench in the library. Where is that wondrous
collection of autographs, that Libra d'Oro, now ? Mr. Keeley's signa-
ture followed suit to that of Lord Carlisle. Fanny Cerito inscribed her
pretty name, with that of "St. Leon " added, next to the signature
of the magnificent Duchess of Sutherland. I was at work with the
whitewashers on the stairs, and saw Semiramis sweep past. Baron
Brunnow met Prof. HoUoway on the neutral groiind of a page of autor
KENSINGTON AiSTD BROMPTON TAVERNS. 475
graphs. Jules Janih's name came close to the laborious ' pai^aphh of an
eminent pugilist. Members of the American Congress found themselves
in juxtaposition with Freaerick Douglas and the dark gentleman who
came as ambassador from Hayti. I remember one Sunday, during that
strange time, seeing Mr. Disraeli, Madame Doche, the Author of
"Vanity Fair," a privy councillor, a Sardinian attach^, the Marquis of
Normanby, the late Mr. Flexmore the clown, the Editor of Punch, and
the Wizard of the North, all pressing to enter the whilom boudoir of
the Blessington.
Meanwhile I and the whitewashers were hard at work. We sum-
moned upholsterers, carvers and gilders to our aid. Troops cf men in
white caps and jackets began to flit about the lower regions. The
gardeners were smothering themselves with roses in the adjacent par-
terres. Marvellous erections began to rear their heads in the grounds,
of Gore House. The wilderness had become, not exactly a paradise,
but a kind of Garden of Epicurus, in which some of the features of that
classical bower of bliss were blended with those of the kingdom of Cock-
aigne, where pigs are said to run about ready roasted with silver knives
and forks stuck in them, and crying, "Come, eat us ; our crackling is
delicious, and the sage-and-dnions with which we are stuffed distils an
odour as sweet as that of freshly gathered violets." Vans laden with
vrines, with groceries, with plates and dishes^ with glasses and cande<
labra, and with bales of calico, and still more calico, were perpetually
arriving at Gore House. The carriages of the nobili^ and gentry were
blocked up among railway goods- vans and Parcels Delivery carts. The
authorities of the place were obliged to send for a detective policeinan '
to mount permanent guard at the Gore, for the swell-mob had found us
out, and flying squadrons of felonry hung on the skirts of our distinguished
visitors, and harassed their fobs fearfully. Then we sent forth advertise-' ■
ments to the' daily papers, and legion's of mothers, grandmothers, and '
aunts brought myriads of newly- Washed boys, some chubby and curly-
haired, some lanky and straight-locked, from whom we seletted the
conielier youths, and put them into picturesque garbs, confected for us
by Mr. NicoU. Then we held a competitive examination of pretty,
girls, and from those who obtained the largest number of marks (of
respect and admiration) we chose a bevy of Hebes, whose rosy lips,
black eyes and blue eyes, fair hair and dark hair, very nearly, drove me
crazy in the spring days of 1851.
Aiid by the end of April we had completely metamorphosed Gore
House. I am sure that poor Lady Blessington would not have known
her coquettish villa again had she visited it, and I am afr&id she would
not have been much gratified to see that which the upholsterers, the:
whitewashers, the hangers of calico, and your humble servant, had
476 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
wrought. As for the venerable Mr. Wilberfbrce, who, I believe,
occupied Gore House some years before Lady Blessington's tenancy, he
would have held up his hands in pious horror to see the changes we
had made. A madcap masquerade of bizarre taste and queer fancies
had turned Gore House completely inside out. In honest truth, we had
played the very dickens with it. The gardens were certainly mag-
nificent, and there was a sloping terrace of flowers in the form of a
gigantic shell, and literally crammed with the choicest roses, which has
seldom, I believe, been rivalled in ornamental gardening. But the
house itself 1 The library had been kindly dealt by, save that from the
ceiling were suspended a crowd of quicksilvered glass globes, which
bobbed about like the pendent ostrich-eggs in an Eastern mosque.
There was a room called the " Floriana," with walls and ceiling fluted
with blue and white calico, and stuck all over with spangles. There
was the " Doriana," also in calico, pink and white, and approached by
a portal calletl the "door of the dungeon of mystery," which was
studded with huge nails, and garnished with fetters in the well-known
Newgate fashion. Looking towards the garden were the Alhambra
Terrace and the Venetian Bridge. The back drawing-room was the
Night of Stars, or the RSverie de t Etoile folaire ; the night being re-
presented by a cerulean ceiling painted over with fleecy clouds, and the
firmament by hangings of blue gauze spangled with stars cut out of silver-
foil paper ! Then there was the vestibule of Jupiter Tonans, the walls
covered with a salmagundi of the architecture of .all nations, from the
Acropolis to the Pyramids of Egypt, from Temple Bar to the Tower of
Babel. The dining-room became the Hall of Jewels, or the Salon des
Larmes de Danae, and the " Shower of Gems," with a grand arabesque
perforated ceiling, gaudy in gilding and distemper colours. Upstairs
there was a room fitted up as a Chinese pagoda, another as an Italian
cottage overlooking a vineyard and the Lake of Como ; another as a
cavern of ice in the Arctic regions, with sham columns imitating ice-
bergs, and a stuffed white fox — bought cheap at a sale — in the chimney.
The grand staircase belonged to me, and I painted its walls with a
grotesque nightmare of portraits of people I had never seen, and hun-
dreds more upon whom 1 had never set eyes save in the print-shops, till
I saw the originals grinning, or scowling, or planted in blank amaze-
ment before the pictorial libels on the walls.
In the gardens Sir Charles Fox built for us a huge barrack of wood, _
glass, and iron, which we called the "Baronial Hall," and which we
fiUed with pictures and lithographs, and flags and calico, in our own ,
peculiar fashion. We hired a large grazing-meadow at the back of the_
gardens, from a worthy Kensington cow-keeper, and having fitted up
another barrack at one end of it, called it the " Pr^ D'Orsay." We
KNIGHTSBRIDGE TAVERNS. 47 J
memorialized the Middlesex magistrates, and, after a great deal of
trouble, got a licence enabling us to sell wines and spirits, and to have
music and dancing if we so chose. We sprinkled tents and alcoves all
over our gardens, and built a gipsies' cavern, and a stalactite pagoda
with double windows, in which gold and silver fish floated. And finally,
having engaged an army of pages, cooks, scullions, waiters, barmaids,
and clerks of the kitchen, we opened this monstrous place on the first
of May, 185 1, and bade all the world come and dine at Soyer's
Symposium.
However, the ungrateful public disregarded the invitation,
and poor Alexis Sbyer is believed to have lost 4006/. by
this enteiprise. He died a few years after, at the early age
of fifty. His friend Mr. Sala has said of him with true
pathos : — " He was a vain man ; but he was good and kind
and charitable. There are paupers and beggars even among
French cooks, and Alexis always had his pensioners and his
alms-duns, to whom his hand was ever open. He was but
a cook, but he was my dear and good friend."
We remember to have heard Soyer say of the writer of
these truthful words, in reply to an inquiry as to the artist
of the figures upon the staircase-walls, " He is a very clever
fellow, of whom you will hear much," — a prediction which
has been fully verified.
Brompton, with its two centuries of Nursery fame, lasted
to our time ; southward, among " the Groves," were the
Florida, Hoop and Toy, and other tea-garden taverns; there
remains the Swan, with its bowling-green.
Knightsbridge Taverns.
Knightsbridge was formerly a noted " Spring Garden,"
with several taverns, of gay and questionable character.
Some of the older houses have historical interest. The
Rose and Crown, formerly the Oliver Cromwell, has been
licensed above three hundred years. It is said to be the
house which sheltered Wyat, while his unfortunate Kentish
followers rested on the adjacent green. A tradition of the
4-78 CLUB LIF£ OF LONDON. .
locality also is that Cromwell's body-guard was once
quartered here, the probability of which is carefully examined
in Da:vis's " Memorials of Knightsbridge." The house has
been much modernized of late years; " but," says Mr. Davis,
"enough still remains. io its. peculiar chimneys, oval-shaped
windows, the low rooms, large yard, and extensive stabling,
with the galleries above, and office-like places beneath, to
testify to its antiquity and former importance." The Rismg
Sun, hard by, is a seventeenth century red-brick house,
which formerly had much carved work in the rooms, and a
good staircase remains.
The Fox and Bull is the third hbuse that has existed
under the same sign. The first was Elizabethan with carved
and panelled rooms, ornamented ceiling; and it was not
until i799i that the immense fireplaces and dog-irons were
removed for stove-grates. This house was pulled down
about 1836, and the second immediately built upon its site;
this stood till the Albert-gate improvements made the
removal of the tavern business to its present situation.*
. The original Fox and Bull is traditionally said to have
• Stolen Marriages were the source of the old Knightsbridge tavern
success, and ten books, of marriages and baptisms solemnized here, 1658
to 1 752, . are preseryed. Trinity Chapel, the old edifice, was one of the
places where these irregular marriages were solemnized. Thus, in
Shadwell's Sullen L&vers, Lovell is made to say, '^Let's dally no longer;
there is a person at Knightsbridge that yokes all stray people together ;
we'll to him, he'll dispatch us presently, and send us away as lovingly
as any two fools that ever yet were condemned to marriage." Some of
the entries in this mariiage register are suspicious enough — "secrecy
for life," or "great secrecy," or "secret for fourteen years," being
appended to the names. Mr. Davis, in his " Memorials of Knights-
bridge, "was the first to exhume from this document the name of the
adventuress, "Mrs. Mary AyKf," whom Sir Samuel Morland married
as his fourth wife, in 1697. Readers of Pepys, will remember how
pathetically Morland wrote, eighteen days after the wedding, that when
he had expected to marry an heiress, "I was, about a fortnight since,
led as a fool to the stocks, and married a coachman's daughter not worth
a shilling."
KNIGHTSBRIDGE TAVERNS. 479
been used by Queen Elizabeth on her visits to Lord
Burghley, at Brompton. Its curious sign is said to be the
only one of the kind existing. .. .Here. for a long time was
.maintained that Queen Anne style. of society, where, persons
of parts and reputation were to be met with in public rooms.
Captain Corbet was for a long, time its head ; Mr. Shaw, of
the War Office, supplied.the London. Gazette; and Mr. Harris,
ofCdVent Garden, his play-bills. Sir Joshua Reynolds, is
said to have been occasionally a.visitor; as also Sir W. Wyrih,
the patron of Ryland. George Morland, top, was frequently
here. The sign was once painted by Sir Joshua, and hung
tiU 1807, when it was blown down and destroyed in a storm.
The house is referred to in the Tatler, No. 259.
At about where William-street joins Lowndes-square was
"an excellent Spring Garden." Among the entries of the
Virtuosi, or St. X,uke's Club, established by Vandyke, is the
following : " Paid and spent at Spring. Gardens, by Knights-
bridge, forfeiture^' 3/. 15^." Pepys being at Kensington,
"on a frolic," June 16, 1664, "lay in his drawers, and
stockings, and waistcoat, tiU five of the clock, and so up,
walked to Knightsbridge, and there eat a mess of cream, and
so to St. James's," - etc. And, April 24, 1665, the King
being in the Park, and sly Pepys being doubtful of being
seen in any pleasure, stepped out of the Park to Knights-
bridge, and there ate and drank in the coach.
Pepys also speaks of -"the World's End," at Knightsbridge,
which Mr. Davis thinks could only have been the sign
adopted for the Garden ; and Pepys, being too soon to go
into Hyde Park, went on to Knightsbridge, and there ate
and drank at the World's End; and elsewhere the road
going,*' to the World's Endj a drinking-house by the Park,
and there merry, and so home late." Congreve, in his
Love for Love, alludes, in a woman's quarrel, to the place,
between Mrs. Frail and Mrs. Foresight, in which the former
says : ' " I don't doubt but you have thought yourself happy
in a hackney-coach before now. If I had gone to Knights-
480 CLVB LIFE OF LONDON.
bridge, or to Chelsea, or to Spring Garden, or Bam Elms,
with a man alone, something might have been said." The
house belonging to this Garden stood till about 1826.
Knightsbridge Grove, approached through a stately
avenue of trees from the road, was a sporting house. Here
the noted Mrs. Comelys endeavoured to retrieve her for-
tunes, after her failure at Carlisle House. Ini785 she gave
up her precarious trade. " Ten years after," says Davis's
" Memorials of Knightsbridge," " to the great surprise of the
pubUc, she reappeared at Knightsbridge as Mrs. Smith, a
retailer of asses' milk. A suite of breakfast-rooms was
opened ; but her former influence could not be recovered.
The speculation utterly failed ; and at length she was con-
fined to the Fleet Prison. There she ended her shallow
career, dying August 19, 1797."
A once notorious house, the Swan, still exists on the
Knightsbridge-road, a little beyond the Green. It is cele-
brated by Tom Brown. In Otway's Soldier's Fortune, 1681,
Sir Davy Dunce says : —
I have surely lost, and ne'er shall find her more. She promised me
strictly to stay at home till I came back again ; for ought I know, she
may be up three pair of stairs in the Temple now, or, it may be, taking
the air as far as Knightsbridge, with some smooth-faced rogue or another ;
'tis a damned house that Swan, — that, Swan at Knightsbridge is a con-
founded house.
To the Feathers, which stood to the south of Grosyenor-
row, an odd anecdote is attached. A Lodge of Odd
Fellows, or some similar society, was in the habit of holding
its meetings in a room at the Feathers ; and on one occa-
sion, when a new member was being initiated in the
mysteries thereof, in rushed two persons, whose abrupt and
unauthorized entrance threw the whole assemblage into an
uproar. Summary punishment was proposed by an expe-
ditious kick into the street ; but, just as it was about to be
bestowed, the secretary recognised one of the intruders as
George, Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Circum-
KNIGHTSBRIDGE TAVERNS. 481
Stances instantly changed: it indeed was he, out on a
nocturnal excursion ; and accordingly it was proposed and
carried that the Prince and his companion should be
admitted members. The Prince was chairman the re-
mainder of the evening; and the chair in which he sat,
ornamented, in consequence, with the plume, is still pre-
served in the parlour of the modern inn in Grosvenor-street
West, and over it hangs a coarsely-executed portrait of the
Prince in the robes of the order. The inn, the hospital,
and various small tenements were removed in 185 1, when
the present stately erections were immediately commenced.
On the ground being cleared away, various coins, old horse-
shoes, a few implements of warfare, and some human
remains were discovered.*
Jenny's Whim, another celebrated place of entertainment,
has only just entirely disappeared ; it was on the site of St.
George's-row. Mr. Davis thinks it to have been named
from the fantastic way in which Jenny, the first landlady, laid
out the garden. Angelo says, it was estabhshed by a fire-
work-maker, in the reign of George I. There was a large
breakfast-room, and the grounds comprised a bowling-green,
alcoves, arbours, and flower-beds ; a fish-pond, a cock-pit,
and a pond for duck-hunting. In the Connoisseur, May 15,
1775, we read: "The lower sort of people had their
Ranelaghs and their Vauxhalls as well as the quaUty. Perrot's
inimitable grotto may be seen, for only calling for a pint of
beer ; and the royal diversion of duck-hunting may be had
into the bargain, together with a decanter of Dorchester, for
your sixpence, at Jenny's Whim." The large garden here
had some amusing decejJtions ; as by treading on a spring
— taking you by surprise — up started different figures, some
ugly enough to frighten you — a harlequin, a Mother Shipton,
or some terrific animal. In a large piece of water facing the
tea-alcoves, large fish or mermaids were showing themselves
• Davis's "Memorials of Knightsbridge."
I I
482 , CLUB LIFE OF LONDON, -
above the surfece." Horace Walpole> in his Letters, occa-
sionally alludes to, Jenny's Whim ; in one to Montagu he
spitefully says— f Here (at Vauxhall) we picked up Lord
Granby, arrived very drunk from Jenny's Whim.'' ,
Towards the close of the last century, Jenny's- Whim
began to decline; its morning visitors were not so numerous,
and opposition was also powerful. It gradually became
forgotten, and at last sank to the condition of a beerhouse,
and about 1804- the business altogether ceased.*
Jenny's Whim has more than once served the novelist for
an illustration ; as in " Maids of Honour, a Tale of the
Times of George the First :" — " There were gardens," says
the writer, mentioning the place, "attached to it, and a
bowling-green ; and parties were frequently made, composed'
of ladies and gentlemen, to enjoy a day's amusement there
in eating strawberries and cream, syllabubs, cake, and
taking other refreshments, of which a great variety could be
procured, with cider, perry, ale, wine, and other liquors in
abundance. ' The gentlemen played at bowls — some em-
ployed themselves at skittles; whilst the ladies amused
themselves at a swing, or walked about the garden, admiring
the sunflowers, hollyhocks, the Duke of Marlborough cut
out of a filbert-tree, and the roses and daisies, currants and
gooseberries, that spread their alluring charms in every
path.
" This was a favourite rendezvous for lovers in courting
time — a day's pleasure at Jenny's Whim being considered
by the fair one the most enticing enjoyment that could be
offered her ; and often the hearts of the most obdurate have
given way beiieath the influence of its attractions. Jenny's
Whim, therefore, had always, during the season, plenty of
pleasant parties of young people of both sexes. Sometimes
* The last relic of "Jenny's Whim" was removed in November,
1865.
RANELAGH GARDENS. 483-
all its chambers were filled, and its gardens thronged by gay
and sentimental visitors."*
Ranelagh Gardens.
This famous place of entertainment was opened in 1742,
on the site of the gardens of Ranelagh House, eastward of
Chelsea Hospital. It was originally projected by Lacy, the
patentee of Drury Lane Theatre, as a sort of Winter Vaux-
hall. There was a Rotunda, with a Doric portico, and arcade
and gallery; a Venetian pavilion in a lake, to which the
company were rowed in boats ; and the grounds were planted
with trees and allees vertes. The several buildings were
designed by Capon, the eminent scene-painter. There were
boxes for refreshments, and in each was a painting : in the
centre was a heating apparatus, concealed by arches, porti-
coes and niches, paintings, etc. ; and supporting the ceiling,
which was decorated with celestial figures, festoons of flowers,
and arabesques, and lighted by circles of chandeliers. The -
Rotunda was opened with a public breakfast, April 5, 1742.
Walpole describes the high fashion of Ranelagh: "The
prince> princess, duke, much nobility, and much mob besides,
were there." " My Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it, that
he says he has ordered all his letters to be directed thither."
The admission was one shilUng ; but the ridottos, with supper
and music, were one guinea. Concerts were also given here :
Dr. Ame composed the music jTenducGi and Mara sangj
and here were first publicly performed the compositions of
the Catch Club. Fireworks and a mimic Etna were next
introduced ; and lastly masquerades, described in Fieldmg's
" Amelia," and satirized in the Connoisseur, No. 66, May i,
1755 ; wherein the-Sunday evening's tea-drinkings at Rane-
* In I7SS, a quarto satirical tract was published, entitled "Jenny's
Whim ; or, a Sure Guide to the Nobility, Gentry, and other Eminent
Persons in this Metropolis."
112
484 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
lagh being laid aside, it is proposed to exhibit "the story
of the Fall of Man in a Masquerade."
But the promenade of the Rotunda, to the music of the
orchestra and organ, soon declined. " There's your famous
Ranelagh, that you make such a fuss about ; why, what a
dull place is that !" says Miss Burney's Evelina. In 1802,
the Installation Ball of the Knights of the Bath was given
given here ; and the Pic-nic Society gave here a breakfast
to 2000 persons, when Gamerin ascended in his balloon.
After the Peace F^te, in 1803, for which allegorical scenes
were painted by Capon, Ranelagh was deserted, and in
1804 the buildings were removed.
There was subsequently opened in the neighbourhood a
New Ranelagh.
Cremorne Tavern and Gardens.
This property was formerly known as Chelsea Farm, and
in 1803 devolved to the Viscount Cremorne, after whom it
was named, and who employed Wyatt to build the elegant
and commodious mansion. In the early part of the present
century, Cremorne was often visited by George III., and
Queen Charlotte, and the Prince of Wales. In 1825, the
house and grounds devolved to Mr. Granville Penn, by
whom they were much improved. Next, the beauty of the
spot, and its fitness for a pleasure-garden, led to its being
opened to the public as "the Stadium." After this, the
estate fell into other hands, and was appropriated to
a very different object. A,t length, under the proprietor-
ship of Mr. T. B. Simpson, the grounds were laid out
with taste, and the tavern enlarged; and the place has
prospered for many years as a sort of Vauxhall, with multi-
tudinous amusements, in variety far outnumbering the old
proto-gardeni
483
The Mulberry Garden,
Upon the site of which is built the northern portion of
Buckingham Palace, was planted by order of James I., in
1609, and in the next two reigns became a public garden.
Evelyn describes it in 1654 as "y° only place of refresh-
ment about y® towne for persons of y" best quality to be
exceedingly cheated at ;" and Pepys refers to it as " a silly
place," but with " a wilderness somewhat pretty." It is a
favourite locality in the gay comedies of Charles II. 's reign.
Dryden frequented the Mulberry Garden ; and according
to a contemporary, the poet ate tarts there with Mrs. Anne
Reeve, his mistress. The company sat in arbours, and
were regaled with cheesecakes, syllabubs, and sweetened
wine ; wine-and-water at dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards.
Sometimes the ladies wore masks. " The country ladys,
for the first month, take up their places in the Mulberry
Garden as early as a citizen's wife at a new play." — Sir
Charles Sedley's " Mulberry Garden," 1668.
A princely palace on that space does rise,
Where Sedley's noble muse found mulberries. — £>r. King.
Upon the above part of the garden site was built Goring
House, let to the Earl of Arlington in 1666, and thence
named Arlington House; in this year the Earl brought from
Holland, for 6oj., the first pound of tea received in England;
so that, in all probability, the first cup of tea made in England
was drunk iipon the site of Buckingham Palace.
Pimlico Taverns.
Pimlico is a name of gardens of public entertainment,
often mentioned by our early dramatists, and in this respect
resembles " Spring Garden." In a rare tract, " Newes from
Hogsdon," 1598, is : " Have at thee, then, my merrie boys,
and hey for old Ben Pimlico's nut-browne f and the place,
486 CLUB LIFB OF LONDON.
in or near Hoxton, was afterwards named from him. Ben
Jonson has :
A second Hogsden,
In days of Pimlico and eye-bright. — The Alchemist.
" Pimlico-path " is a gay resort of his "Bartholomew Fair;"
and Meercraft, in " The Devil is an Ass," says :
I'll have thee, Captain Gilthead, and march up
And take in Pimlico, and kill the bush
At every tavern.
In 1609, was printed a tract entitled "Pimlyco, or Prince
Red Cap, 'tis a Mad World at Hogsden." Sir Lionel Rash,
in Green's " Tu Quoque," sends his daughter " as far as
Pimlico for a draught of Derby ale, that it may bring colour
into her cheeks." Massinger mentions.
Eating pudding-pies on a Sunday,
At Pimlico or Islington. — City Madam.
Aubrey, in his " Surrey," speaks of " a Pimlico Garden on
Bankside."
Pimlico, the district between Knightsbridge and- the
Thames, and St. James's Park and Chelsea, was noted for its
public gardens : as the Mulberry Garden, now part of the
site of Buckingham Palace j the Dwarf Tavern and
Gardens, afterwards Spring Gardens, between Ebury-street
and Belgrave-terrace ; the Star and Garter, at the end
of Five-Fields-row, famous for its equestrianism, fire-
works, and dancing; and the Orange, upon the site of
St. Barnabas' church. Here, too, were Ranelagh and
New Ranelagh. But the largest garden in Pimlico v/as
Jenny's Whim, already described. In later years it was
freqtiented by crowds from bull-baiting in the adjoining
fields. Among the existing old signs are, the Bag o' Nails,
Arabella-row, from Ben Jonson's " Bacchanals ;" the Com-
passes, of Cromwell's time (near Grosvenor-row) ; and the
Gun Tavern and Tea-gardens, Queen's-row, with its arbours
LAMBETH AND VAVXHALL TAVERNS. 487
and costumed figures taken down for the Buckingham Gate
improvements. "Pimlico is still noted for its ale-breweries.
Lambeth, — Vaxixhall Taverns and Gardens, etc.
On the south bank of the Thames, at the time of the
Restoration, were first laid out the New Spring Gardens, at
Lambeth (Vauxhall), so called to distinguish them from
Spring Garden, Charing Cross. Nearly two centuries of gay-
existence had Vauxhall Gardens, notwithstanding the pro-
:verbial fickleness of our climate, and its ill-adaptation for
out-door amusements. The incidents of its history are
better known than those of Marylebone or Ranelagh
Gardens j so that we shall not here repeat the Vauxhall
programmes. The gardens were finally closed in 1859, and
the ground is now built upon : a church, of most beautiful
design, and a school of art, being the principal edifices.
"Though Vauxhall Gardens retained their plan to the
last, the lamps had long fallen off in their golden fires ; the
punch got weaker, the admission-money less ; and the com-
pany fell in a like ratio of respectability, and grew dingy,
not to say raffish, — a sorry falling off from the Vauxhall
crowd of a century since, when it numbered princes and
ambassadors ; ' on its tide and torrent of fashion floated all
the beauty of the time ; and through its lighted avenues of
trees glided cabinet ministers and their daughters, royal
dukes' and their wives, and all the red-heeled macaronics.'
Even fifty years ago, the evening costume of the company
was elegant : head-dresses of flowers and feathers were seen
in the promenade, and the entire place sparkled as did no
other place of public amusement. But low prices brought
low company. The conventional wax-lights got fewer ; the
punch gave way to fiery brandy or doctored stout. The
semblance of Vauxhall was still preserved in the orchestra
printed upon the plates and mugs ; and the old firework bell
tinkled as gaily as ever. But matters grew more seedy ; the
4^S CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
place seemed literally worn out : the very trees were scrubby
and singed ; and it was high time to say, as well as see, in
letters of lamps, ' Farewell for ever !' "*
Several other taverns and gardens have existed at different
times in this neighbourhood. Cumberland Gardens' site is
now Vauxhall Bridge-road, and Cuper's Garden was laid
out with walks and arbours by Boydell Cuper, gardener to
Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who gave him some of the muti-
lated Arundelian marbles (statues), which Cuper set up in
his ground: it was suppressed in 1753: the site is now
crossed by Waterloo Bridge Road. Belvidere House and
Gardens adjoined Cuper's Garden, in Queen Anne's reign.
The Hercules Inn and Gardens occupied the site of the
Asylum for Female Orphans, opened in 1758 ; and opposite
were the Apollo Gardens and the Temple of Flora, Mount-
row, opened 1788. A century earlier there existed, in King
William's reign, Lambeth Wells, in Three Coney Walk, now
Lambeth Walk ; it was reputed for its mineral waters, sold
at a penny a quart, " the same price paid by St. Thomas's
Hospital." About 1750 a Musical Society was held here,
and lectures and experiments were given on natural philo-
sophy by Erasmus King, who had been coachman to Dr.
Desaguliers. In Stangate-lane, Carlisle-street, is the Bower
Saloon, with its theatre and music-room, a pleasure haunt of
our own time. Next is Canterbury Hall, the first established
of the great Music Halls of the metropolis.
The Dog and Duck was a place of entertainment in St.
George's Fields, where duck-hunting was one of its brutal
amusements. The house was taken down upon the rebuild-
ing of Bethlehem Hospital j and the sign-stone, representing
a dog squatting upon his haunches, with a duck in his
mouth, with the date 1617, is imbedded in the brick wall of
* See the Descriptions of Vauxhall Gardens in " Curiosities of
London,'' pp. 745-748; "Walks and Talks about London," pp.
16-30 ; " Romance of London," vol. iii. pp. 34-44.
FREEMASONS' LODGES. 489
the Hospital garden, upon the site of the entrance to the old
tavern ; and at the Hospital is a drawing of the Dog and
Duck : it was a resort of Hannah More's " Cheapside
Apprentice."
Bermondsey Spa, a chalybeate spring, discovered about
1770, was opened, in 1780, as a minor Vauxhall, with
fireworks, pictures of still life, and a picture model of the
Siege of Gibraltar, painted by Keyse, the entire apparatus
occupying about four acres. He died in 1800, and the
garden was shut up about 1805. There are Tokens of the
place extant, and the Spa-road is named from it.
A few of the old Southwark taverns have been described.
From its being the seat of our early Theati-es, the houses of
entertainment were here very numerous, in addition to the
old historic Inns, which are fast disappearing. In the
Beaufoy collection are several Southwark Tavern Tokens ;
as — The Bore's Head, 1649 (between Nos. 25 and 26
High-street). Next also is a Dogg and Dvcke token, 1651
(St. George's Fields) ; the Greene Man, 165 1 (which remains
in Blackman-street) ; y" Bull Head Taverne, 1667, men-
tioned by Edward AUeyn, founder of Dulwich College, as
one of his resorts ; Duke of Suffolk's Head, 1669 ; and the
Swan with Two Necks.
Freemasons' Lodges.
Mr. Elmes, in his admirable work, " Sir Christopher Wren
and his Times," 1852, thus glances at the position of Free-
masonry in the MetropoUs two centuries since, or from the
time of the Great Fire :
"In 1666 Wren was nominated deputy Grand Master
under Earl Rivers, and distinguished himself above all his
predecessors in legislating for the body at large, and in pro-
moting the interests of the lodges under his immediate care.
He was Master of the St. Paul's Lodge, which, during the
building of the Cathedral, assembled at the Goose and
49° CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Gridiron in St. Paul's Churchyard, and is now the Lodge of
Antiquity, acting by immemorial prescription, and "regularly
presided at its meetings for upwards of eighteen years.
During his presidency he presented that Lodge with three
mahogany candlesticks, beautifully carved, and- the trowel
and mallet which he used in laying the first stone of the
Cathedral, June 21, 1675, which the brethren of that
ancient and distinguished Lodge still possess' and duly
appreciate.
" During the building of the City, Lodges were held by
the fraternity in different places, and several new ones con-
stituted, which were attended by the leading architects and
the best builders of the, day, and amateur brethren of the
mystic craft. In 1674 Earl Rivers resigned his graiid
mastership, and George Villieirs, Duke of Buckingham, was
elected to the dignified office. He left the care of the
Grand Lodge and the brotherhood to the Deputy Grand
Master Wren and his Wardens. During the short reign of
James II., who tolerated no secret societies but the Jesuits,
the Lodges were but thinly attended : but in 1685 Sir Christo-
pher Wren was elected Grand Master of the Order, and
nominated Gabriel Cibber, the sculptor, and Edward Strong,
master mason at St. Paul's and other of the City churches,
as Grand Wardens. The Society has continued with various
degrees of success to the present day, particularly under the
grand-masterships of the Prince of Wales, afterwards King
George IV.,* and his brother, the late Duke of Sussex, and
since the death of the latter, under that of the Earl of
Zetland ; and Lodges under the constitution of the Grand
Lodge of England are held in every pa.rt of the habitable
globe, as its numerically and annually-increasing lists
abundantly show."
Sir Francis Palgrave, in an elaborate paper in the Edin-
* The Prince was initiated in a Lodge at the Key and Garter,
No. 26, Pall MaU.
FREEMASONS' LODGES. 491
burgh Review, April, 1839, however, takes another view of
the subject, telling us that " the connexion between the
operative' masons,* and those whom, without disrespect, we
must term a convivial society of good fellows, met at the
' Goose and Gridiron, in St. Paul his Churchyard,' appears
to have been finally dissolved about the beginning of the
eighteenth century. The theoretical and mystic, for we dare
not say ancient, Freemasons, separated from the Worshipful
Company of Masons and Citizens of London about the
period above mentioned. It appears from an inventory of
the contents of the chest of the London Company, that not
very long since, it contained ' a book wrote on parchment,
and bound or stitched in parchment, containing 113 annals
of the antiquity, rise, and progress of the art and mystery of
Masonry.' But this document is not now to be found."
There is in existence, and known to persons who take an
interest in the History of Freemasonry, a copper-plate List
of Freemasons' Lodges in London in the reign of Queen
Anne, with a representation of the Signs, and some Masonic
ceremony, in which are eleven figures of well-dressed men,
in the costume of the above period. There were then 129
Lodges, of which 86 were in London, 36 in English cities,
and 7 abroad.
Freemasonry evidently sprang up in London at the build-
ing of St. Paul's, and many of the oldest Lodges are in the
neighbourhood. But the head-quarters of Freemasonry are
the Grand Hall, in the rear of Freemasons' Tavern, 62,
Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields : it was commenced
May I, 1775, from the designs of Thomas Sandby, R.A.,
Professor of Architecture in the Royal Academy : 5000/.
was raised by a Tontine towards the cost ; and the Hall
was. opened and dedicated in solemn form, May 23, 1776 ;
* Hampton Court Palace was built by Freemasons, as appears from
the very curious accounts of the expenses of the fabric, extant among
the public records of London.
492 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Lord Petre, Grand Master. " It is the first house built. in
this country with the appropriate symbols of rnasonry, and
with the suitable apartments for the holding of lodges, the
initiating, passing, raising, and exalting of brethren." Here
are held the Grand and other lodges, which hitherto assem-
bled in the Halls of the City Companies.
Freemasons' Hall, as originally decorated, is shown in a
print of the annual procession of Freemasons' Orphans, by
T. Stothard, R.A. It is a finely-proportioned room, 92 feet
by 43 feet, and 60 feet high, and will hold 1500 persons : it
was re-decorated in 1846 : the ceiling and coving are richly
decorated ; above the principal entrance is a large gallery,
with an organ ; and at the opposite end is a coved recess,
flanked by a pair of fluted Ionic columns, and Egyptian door-
ways J the sides are decorated with fluted Ionic pilasters ; and
throughout the room in the frieze are masonic emblems, gilt
upon a transparent blue ground. In the intercolumniations
are full-length royal and other masonic portraits, including
that of the Duke of Sussex, as Grand-Master, by Sir W.
Beechey, R.A. In the end recess is a marble statue of the
Duke of Sussex, executed for the Grand Lodge by E. H.
Baily, R.A. Tlie statue is seven feet six inches high, and
the pedestal six feet ; the Duke wears the robes of a Knight
of the Garter, and the Guelphic insignia : at his side is a
small altar, sculptured with masonic emblems.
Whitebait Taverns.
At what period the lovers of good living first went to eat
Whitebait at " the taverns contiguous to the places where
the fish is taken," is not very clear. At all events the houses
did not resemble the Brunswick, the West India Dock, the
Ship, or the Trafalgar, of the present day, these having much
of the architectural pretension of a modern club-house.
Whitebait have long been numbered among the delicacies
of our tables, for we find " six dishes of Whitebait " in the
WHITEBAIT TAVERNS. 493
funeral feast of the munificent founder of the Charterhouse,
given in the Hall of the Stationers' Company, on May 28,
1 61 2 — the year before the Globe Theatre was burnt down,
and the New River completed. For aught we know these
dehcious fish may have been served up to Henry VIII. and
Queen Elizabeth in their palace at Greenwich, off which
place, and Blackwall opposite, Whitebait have been for ages
taken m the Thames at flood tide. To the river-side taverns
we must go to enjoy a " Whitebait dinner," for one of the
conditions of success is that the fish should be directly
netted out of the river into the cook's cauldron.
About the end of March, or early in April, Whitebait
make their appearance in the Thames, and are then small,
apparently but just changed from the albuminous state of
the young fry. During June, July, and August immense
quantities are consumed by visitors to the different taverns
at Greenwich and Blackwall,
Pennant says : Whitebait " are esteemed very delicious
when fried with fine flour, and occasion during the season a
vast resort of the lower order of epicures to the taverns con-
tiguous to the places where they are taken." If this account
be correct, there must have been a strange change in the
grade of the epicures frequenting Greenwich and Blackwall
since Pennant's days, for at present the fashion of eating
Whitebait is sanctioned b} the highest authorities, from the
Court of St. James's Palace in the West to the Lord Mayor
and his court in the East ; besides the philosophers of the
Royal Society, and her Majesty's Cabinet Ministers. Who,
for example, does not recollect such a paragraph as the
following, which appeared in the Morning Post of the day
on which Mr. Yarrell wrote his account of Whitebait,
September loth, 1835? —
" Yesterday the Cabinet Ministers went down the river
in the Ordnance barges to Lovegrove's West India Dock
Tavern, Blackwall, to partake of their annual fish dinner.
Covers were laid for thirty-five gentlemen."
494 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
For our own part, we consider the Ministers did not evince
their usual good policy in choosing so late a period as
September, the Whitebait being finer eating in July or
August, so that their "annual fish dinner "must rather be
regarded as a sort of prandial wind-up of the Parliamentary
session than as a specimen of refined epicurism.
We remember many changes in matters concerning White-
bait at Greenwich and Blackwall. Formerly, the taverns
were mostly built with weather-board fronts, with bow-
windows, so as to command a view of the river. The old
Ship and the Crown and Sceptre taverns at Greenwich were
built in this manner; and some of the Blackwall houses were
of humble pretensions : these have disappeared, and hand-
some architectural piles have been erected in their places.
Meanwhile, Whitebait have been sent to the metropolis by
railway or steamer, where they figure in fishmongers' shops
and tavern cartes of almost every degree.
Perhaps the famed delicacy of Whitebait rests as much
upon its skilful cookery as upon the freshness of the fish.
Dr. Pereira has published the mode of cooking in one of
Lovegrave's " bait-kitchens " at Blackwall, The fish shoiild
be dressed within an hour after being caught, or they are apt.
to cling together. They are kept in water, from which they
are taken by a skimmer as required ; they are then thrown
upon a layer of flour, contained in a large napkin, in which
they are shaken until completely enveloped in flour ; they
are then put into a colander, and all the superfluous flour is
removed by sifting ; the fish are next thrown into hot lard
contained in. a copper cauldron or stew-pan placed over a
charcoal fire ; in about two minutes they are removed by a,
tin skimmer, thrown into a colander to drain, and served up
instantly, by placing them on a fish-drainer in a dish. The
rapidity of the cooking process is of the utmost importance ;
and if it be not attended to, the fish will lose their crispness,
and be worthless. At table, lemon juice is squeezed over
them, and they are seasoned with Cayenne pepper ; brown
WHITEBAIT TA VERNS. 495
bread and butter is substituted for plain bread ; and tliey are
eaten with iced champagne, or punch.
_ The origin of the Ministers' Fish Dinner, already men-
tioned, has been thus pleasantly narrated : —
Every year, the approach of the close of the Parliamen-
tary Session is indicated by what is termed " the Ministerial
Fish Dinner," in which Whitebait forms a prominent dish ;
and Cabinet Ministers are the company. The Dinner takes
place at a principal tavern, usually at Greenwich,' but some-
times at Blackwall : the dining-room is decorated for the
occasion, which partakes of a state entertainment. For-
merly, however, the Ministers went down the river from
Whitehall in an Ordnance gilt barge : now, a gpvernment
steamer is employed. The origin of this annual festivity is
told as follows : — On the banks of Dagenham Lake or
Reach, in Essex, many years since, there stood a cottage,
occupied by a princely merchant named Preston, a baronet
of Scotland and Nova Scotia, and sometime M.P. for
Dover. He called it his " fishing <;ottage," and often in the
spring he went thither, with a friend or two, as a relief to
the toils of parliamentary and mercantile duties. His most
frequent guest was the Right Hon. George Rose, Secretary
of the Treasury, and an Elder Brother of the Trinity House.
Many a day did these two worthies enjoy at Dagenham
Reach ; and Mr. Rose once intimated to Sir Robert that
Mr. Pitt, of whose friendship they were both justly proud,
would, no doubt, delight in the comfort of such a retreat
A day was named, and the Premier was invited ; and he
was so well pleased with his reception at the "fishing
cottage "— tliey were all two if not three botde men — that,
on taking leave, Mr. Pitt readily accepted an invitation for
the following year.
For a few years, the Premier continued a visitor to
Dagenham, and was always accompanied by Mr. George
Rose. But the distance was considerable ; the going and
coming were somewhat inconvenient for the First Minister
496 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
of the Crown. Sir Robert Preston, however, had his
remedy, and he proposed that they should in future dine
nearer London. Greenwich was suggested; we do not hear
of Whitebait in the Dagenhara dinners, and its introduction,
probably, dates from the removal to Greenwich.. The party
of three was now increased to four ; Mr. Pitt being per-
mitted to bring Lord Camden. Soon after, a fifth guest was
invited — Mr. Charles Long, afterwards Lord Farnborough.
All were still the guests of Sir Robert Preston ; but, one by
one, other notables were invited, — all Tories — and, at last,
Lord Camden considerately remarked, that, as they were all
dining at a tavern, it was but fair that Sir Robert Preston
should be relieved from the expense. It was then arranged
that the dinner should be given, as usual, by Sir Robert
Preston, that is to say, at his invitation ; and he insisted on
still contributing a buck and champagne : the rest of the
charges were thenceforth defrayed by the several guests ;
and, on this plan, the meeting continued to take place
annually till the death of Mr. Pitt.
Sir Robert was requested, next year, to summon the
several guests, the list of whom, by this time, included most
of the Cabinet Ministers. The time for meeting was usually
after Trinity Monday, a short period before the end of the
Session. By degrees, the meeting, which was originally
purely gastronomic, appears to have assumed, in conse-
quence of the long reign of the Tories, a political or semi-
political character. Sir Robert Preston died; but Mr.
Long, now Lord Farnborough, undertook to summon the
several guests, the list of whom was furnished by Sir Robert
Preston's private secretary. Hitherto, the invitations had
been sent privately : now they were despatched in Cabinet
boxes, and the party was, certainly, for some time, limited
to the Members of the Cabinet. A dinner lubricates minis-
terial as well as other business : so that the " Ministerial
Fish Dinner" may "contribute to the grandeur and pros-
perity of our beloved country."
iJ-iiS.-/.^ J
The White Horse, Kensington
St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell. (The Urban Club.)
WHITEBAIT TA VERNS. 497
The following Carte is from the last edition of the " Art
of Dining," in Murray's " Railway Reading :"—
FTsh Dinner at Blackmail or Greenwich.
La tortue k I'Anglaise.
La bisque d'ecrevisses.
Le consomme aux quenelles de merlan.
De tortue claire.
Les casseroles de green fat feront le tour de la table.
Les tranches de saumon (crimped).
Le poisson de St. Pierre i la creme.
Le zoutchet de perches.
,, de truites.
,, de flottons.
,, de soles (crimped).
„ de saumon.
,, d'anguilles.
Les lamproies a la Worcester.
Les croques en bouches de laitances de marquereau.
Les boudins de merlans a la reine.
^ .t; { Les soles menues frites.
.a ^ J Les petits carrelets ,,
I 'g 1 Croquettes de homard. :
O p. I Les filets d'anguUIes.
La ti-uite saumonee k la Tartare.
Le whitebait : id. k la diable.
Second Service, . .
Les petits poulets au cresson — le jambonneau aux epinards.
La; Mayonnaise de filets de soles— les filets de merlans i I'Arpin.
Les petits pois a I'Anglaise — les artichauts k la Barigoule.
La gelee de Marasquin aux fraises — les pets de nonnes.
Les tartelettes aux cerises — les celestines k la fleur d'orange.
Le.baba k la compote d'abricots — le fromage Plombiere.
Mr. Walker, in his " Original," gives an account of a
dinner he ordered, at Lovegrove's, at Blackwall, where if } ou
never dined, so much the worse for you : —
The party will consist of seven men besides myself, and every guest
is asked for some reason — upon which good fellowship mainly depends ;
for people bought together nncoimectedly had, in my opinion, better
be kept separately. Eight I hold the golden number, never to be
K K
498 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
exceeded without weakening the efficacy of concentration. The dinner
is to consist of turtle, followed by no other fish but Whitebait, which is
to be followed by no other meat but grouse, which are to be succeeded
simply by apple-fritters and jelly, pastry on such occasions being quite
out of place. With the turtle, of course, there will be punch ; with the
Whitebait, champagne ; and with the grouse, claret ; the two former I
have ordered to be particularly well iced, and they will all be placed in
succession upon the table, so that we can help ourselves as we please.
I shall permit no other wines, unless, perchance, a bottle or two of port,
if particularly wanted, as I hold variety of wines a great mistake. With
respect to the adjuncts, I shall take care that there is cayenne, with
lemons cut in halves, not in quarters, within reach of every one, for the
turtle, and that brown bread and butter in abundance is set upon the
table for the Whitebait. It is no trouble to think of these little matters
beforehand, but they make a vast difference in convivial contentment.
The dinner will be followed by ices, and a good dessert, after which
coffee and one glass of liqueur each, and no more ; so that the present
may be enjoyed without inducing retrospective regrets. If the master
of a feast msh his party to succeed, he must know how to command,
and not let his guests run riot, each according to his own wild fancy.
The London Tavern,
Situated about the middle of the western side of Bishops-
gate-street Within, presents in its frontage a mezzanine-
storey, and lofty Venetian windows, reminding one of the
old-fashioned assembly-room fa9ade. The site of the present
tavern was previously occupied by the White Lion Tavern,
which was de£(troyed in an extensive fire on the 7 th of
November, 1765; it broke out at a peruke-maker's opposite;
the flames were carried by a high wind across the street, to
the house immediately adjoining the tavern, the fire speedily
reaching the corrier j the other angles of Comhill, Grace-
church-street, and Leadenhall-street, were all on fire at the
same time, and fifty houses and buildings were destroyed
and damaged, including, the White Lion and Black Lion
Taverns.
Upon the site of the former was founded " The London
Tavern," oh the Tontine principle; it was commenced in
THE LONDON TAVERN. 499
1767, and completed and opened in September, 1768;
Richard B. Jupp, architect. The front is more than 80 feet
wide by nearly 70 feet in height.
The Great Dining-room, or " Pillar-room," as it is called,
is 40 feet by 33 feet, decorated with medallions and garlands,
Corinthian columns and pilasters. At the top of the edifice
is the ball-room, extending the whole length of the structure,
by 33 feet in width, and 30 feet in height, which may be laid
out as a banqueting-room for 300 feasters ; exclusively of
accommodating 150 ladies as spectators in the galleries at
each end. The walls are throughout hung with paintings,
and the large room has an organ.
The Turtle is kept in large tanks, which occupy a whole
vault, where two tons of turtle may sometimes be seen
swimming in one vat. We have to thank Mr. Cunningham
for this information, which is noteworthy, independently of
its epicurean association, — ^that " turtles will live in cellars
for three, months in excellent condition if kept in the same
water in which they were brought to this country. To change
the water is to lessen the weight and flavour of the, turtle."
Turtle does not appear in bills of fare of entertainments
given by Lord Mayors and Sheriffs between the years 1761
and 1766; and it is not till 1768 that turtle appears by
name, and then in the bill of the banquet at the Mansion
House to the King of Denmark. The cellars, which con-
sist of the whole basement storey, are filled with barrels of
porter, pipes of port, butts of sherry, etc. Then there are a
labyrinth of walls of bottle ends, and a region of bins, six
bottles deep ; the catacombs of Johannisberg, Tokay, and
Burgundy. "Still we glide on through rivers of sawdust
through embankments of genial wine. There are twelve
hundred of champagne down here ; there are between six,
and seven hundred dozen of claret ; corked up in these bins
is a capital of from eleven to twelve thousand pounds ; these
bottles absorb, in simple interest at five per cent., an tncome
K K 2
500 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
amounting to some five or six hundred pounds per annum."*
" It was not, however, solely for uncovering these floods of
mighty wines, nor for luxurious feasting that the London
Tavern was at first erected, nor for which it is still exclu-
sively famous, since it was always designed to provide a
spacious and convenient place for public meetings. One of
the earliest printed notices concerning the establishment is
of this character, it being the account of a meeting for pro-
moting a public subscription for John Wilkes, on the 12th
of February, 1769, at which 3000/. were raised, and local
committees appointed for the provinces. In the Spring
season such meetings and committees of all sorts are equally
numerous and conflicting with each other, for they not
unfrequently comprise an interesting charitable election or
two ; and in addition the day's entertainments are often
concluded with more than one large dinner, and an evening
party for the lady spectators.
" Here, too, may be seen the hasty arrivals of persons
for the meetings of the Mexican Bondholders on the second
floor ; of a Railway assurance ' upstairs, and first to the left;'
of an asylum election at the end of the passage ; and of the
party on the ' first-floor to the right,' who had to consider of
' the union of the Gibbleton line to the Great-Trunk-Due-
Eastem-Junction.'
" For these business meetings the rooms are arranged
with benches, and sumptuously Turkey-carpeted ; the end
being provided with a long table for the directors, with an
imposing array of papers and pens.
" ' The morn, the noon, the day is pass'd ' in the reports,
the speeches, the recriminations and defences of these
parties, until it is nearly five o'clock. In the very same
room the Hooping Cough Asylum Dinner is to tak6 place
at six ; and the Mexican Bondholders are stamping and
hooting above, on the same floor which in an -hour is to
Household Words, 1852.
THE LONDON TAVERN. 501
support the feast of some Worshipful Company which makes
t their hall. The feat appears to be altogether impossible ;
nevertheless, it must and will be most accurately performed."
The Secretary has scarcely bound the last piece of red
tape round his papers, when four men rush to the four
corners of the Turkey carpet, and half of it is rolled up, dust
and all. Four other men with the half of a clean carpet
bowl it along in the wake of the one displaced. While you are
watching the same performance with the remaining half of
the floor, a battalion of waiters has fitted up, upon the new
half carpet, a row of dining-tables and covered them with
table-cloths. While in turn you watch them, the entire
apartment is tabled and table-clothed. Thirty men are at
this work upon a system, strictly departmental. Rinse and
three of his followers lay the knives ; Burrows and three
more cause the glasses to sparkle on the board. You
express your wonder at this magical celerity. Rinse
moderately replies that the same game is going on in other
four rooms ; and this happens six days out of the seven in
the dining-room.
When the Banquet was given to Mr. Macready in Feb-
ruary, 1851, the London Tavern could not accommodate
all the company, because there were seven hundred and
odd ; and the Hall of Commerce was taken for the dinner.
The merchants and brokers were transacting business there
at four o'clock ; and in two hours, seats, tables, platforms,
dinner, wine, gas, and company, were all in. By a quarter
before six everything was ready, and a chair placed before
each plate. Exactly at six, everything was placed upon the
table, and most of the guests were seated.
For effecting these wonderful evolutions, it will be no
matter of surprise that we are told that an army of servants,
sixty or seventy strong, is retained on the establishment ;
taking on auxiliary legions during the dining season.
The business of this gigantic establishment is of such
extent as to be only carried on by this systematic means.
502 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Among the more prominent displays of its resources which
take place here are the annual Banquets of the officers of
some twenty-eight different regiments, in the month of May,
There are likewise given here a very large number of the
annual entertainments of the different charities of London.
Twenty-four of the City Companies hold their Banquets
here, and transact official business. Several Balls take place
here annually. Masonic I^odges are held here ; and almost
innumerable Meetings, Sales, and Elections for Charities
alternate with the more directly festive business of the
London Tavern. Each of the departments of so vast an
establishment has its special interest. We have glanced at
its dining-halls, and its turtle and wine cellars.* To detail
its kitchens and the management of its stores and supplies,
and consumption, would extend beyond our limit, so that
we shajl end by remarking that upon no portion of our
metropolis is more largely enjoyed the luxury of doing good,
and the observance of the rights and duties of goodfellow-
ship, than at the London Tavern.
The Clarendon Hotel.
This sumptuous hotel, the reader need scarcely be in-
formed, takes its name from its being built upon a portion
of the gardens of Clarendon House, between Albemarle
and Bond-streets, in each of which the hotel has a frontage.
* The usual allowance at what is called a Turtle-Dinner is 6 lb. live
weight per head. At the Spanish-Dinner, at the City of London
Tavern, in 1808, four hundred guests attended, and 2500 lb. of turtle
were consumed.
For the Banquet at Guildhall, on Lord Mayor's Day, 250 tureens of
turtle are provided.
Turtle may be enjoyed in steaks, cutlets, or fins, and as soup, clear
and/«r&, at the Albion,- London, and Freemasons', and other large
taverns. "The Ship and Turtle Tavern," Nos. 129 and 130, Leaden,
hall-street, is especially famous for. its turtle ; and from this establish-
ment several of the West-end Club-houses are supplied.
THE CLARENDON HOTEL. 503
The house was, for a short term, let to the Earl of Chatham,
for his town residence.
The Clarendon contains series of apartments, fitted for the
reception of princes and their suites, and for nobility. Here
are likewise given official banquets on the most costly scale.
^ Among the records of the house is the menu of the dinner
given to Lord Chesterfield, on his quitting the office of
Master of the Buckhounds, at the Clarendon. The party
consisted of thirty ; the price was six guineas a head ; and
the dinner was ordered by Count D'Orsay, who stood
almost without a rival amongst connoisseurs in this depart-
ment of art : —
Premier Saince.
Potages. — Printanier : a la reiiie : turtle.
Poissons. — Turbot (lobster and Dutch sauces) : saumon k la Taitare :
rougets a la cardinal : friture de raorue : whitebait.
Releves. — Filet de boeuf k la Napolitaine : dindon i la chipolata :
timballe de macaroni : haunch of venison.
Entries. — Croquettes de volaille : petits pates aux huJtres : cotelettes
d'agneau : puree de champignons : c&telettes d'agneau aux points
d'asperge : fricandeau de veau i Toseille : ris de veau pique aux tomates :
cotelettes de pigeons \ la Dusselle : chartreuse de l^giljnes aux faisans :
filets de caimetons a la Bigarrade : boudins ^ la Richelieu : " saute de
volaille aux truffes : pSt^ de mouton monte. ' '
C6tL — Boeuf r6ti : jambon : salade.
Second Service.
R6ts. — Chapons, quails, turkey poults, green goose. .
Entremets. — Asperges : haricot a la Fran5aise : mayonnaise de
homard : gelee Macedoine : aspics d'oeufs de phivier : Charlotte Russe ;
gelee au Marasquin : creme marbre : corbeille de patisserie : vol-au-
vent de rhubarb : tourte d'abricots : corbeille des meringues : dressed
crab : salade au gelantine. — Champignons aux fines herbes.
Relevis. — Souffle, a la vanille : Nesselrode pudding : Adelaide sand-
wiches : foudus. Pieces montes," etc.
The reader will not fail to observe how well the English
dishes, — turtle, whitebait, and venison, — ^relieve the French
in this dinner : and what a breadth, depth, solidity, and
dignity they add to it. Green goose, also, may rank as
504 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
English, the goose being held in little honour, with the
exception of its liver, by the French ; but we think Comte
P'Orsay did quite right in inserting it. The execution is
said to have been pretty nearly on a pax with the conception,
and the whole entertainment was crowned with the most
inspiriting success. The price was not unusually large.*
Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen-street.
This well-appointed tavern, built by William Tyler, in
1786, and since considerably enlarged, in addition to the
usual appointments, possesses the great advantage of Free-
masons' Hall, wherein take place some of our leading public
festivals and anniversary dinners, the latter mostly in May
and June. Here was given the farewell dinner to John
Philip Kemble, upon his retirement from the stage, in 181 7 ;
the public dinner, on his birthday, to James Hogg, the
Ettrick Shepherd, in 1832. Mollard, who has published an
excellent " Art of Cookery,'' was many years Maitre cPITdtel,
and proprietor of the Freemasons' Tavern.
In the Hall meet the Madrigal Society, the Melodists'
and other musical clubs : and the annual dinners of the
Theatrical Fund, Artists' Societies, and other public institu-
tions, are given here.
Freemasons' Hall has obtained some notoriety as the
arena in which were delivered and acted the Addresses at
the Anniversary Dinners of the Literary Fund, upon whose
eccentricities we find the following amusing note in the latest
edition of the " Rejected Addresses :" —
" The annotator's first personal knowledge of William
Thomas Fitzgerald, was at Harry Greville's Pic-Nic Theatre,
in Tottenham-street, where he personated Zanga in a wig
too small for his head. The second time of seeing him was
at the table of old Lord Dudley, who familiarly called him
* "The Art ofDiDiDg." Murray, 1852
FREEMASONS TAVERN. 505
Fitz, but forgot to name him in his will. The Viscount's
son, however, liberally supplied the omission by a donation
of five thousand pounds. The third and last time of en-
countering him was at an anniversary dinner of the Literary
Fund, at the Freemasons' Tavern. Both parties, as two of
the stewards, met their brethren in a small room about half-
an-hour before dinner. The lampooner, out of delicacy,
kept aloof from the poet. The latter, however, made up to
him, when the following dialogue took place :
" Fitzgerald (with good humour). ' Mr. , I mean to
recite after dinner.'
«Mr. . '^Doyou?'
" Fitzgerald. ' Yes : you'll have more of God bless the
Regent and the Duke of York 1'
" The whole of this imitation, (one of the Rejected Ad-
dresses,) after a lapse of twenty years, appears to the authors
too personal and sarcastic ; but they may shelter themselves
under a very broad mantle : —
Let hoarse Fitzgerald bawl
His creaking couplets in a tavem-hall. — Byron.
" Fitzgerald actually sent in an address to the Committee
on the 31st of August, 1812. It was published among the
other "Genuine Rejected Addresses," in one volume, in
that year. The following is an extract : —
The troubled shade of Garrick, hovering near,
Dropt on the burning pile a pitying tear.
*' What a pity that, like Sterne's recording angel, it did
not succeed in blotting the fire out for ever ! That failing,
why not adopt Gulliver's remedy ?"
Upon the " Rejected," the Edinburgh Review notes :—
" The first piece, under the name of the loyal Mr. Fitz-
gerald, though as good we suppose as the original, is not
very interesting. Whether it be very like Mr. Fitzgerald or
not, however, it must be allowed that the vulgarity, servility,
5o6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
and gross absurdity of the newspaper scribblers is well
rendered."
The Albion, Aldersgate Street.
This extensive establishment has long been famed for its
good dinners, and its excellent wines. Here take place the
majority of the banquets of the Corporation of London^ the'
Sheriffs' Inauguration Dinners, as well' as those of' Civic
Companies and Committees, and such festivals, public and
private, as are usually held at taverns of the highest class.
The farewell Dinners given by the East India Company
to the Governors-General of India, usually take place at the
Albion. " Here likewise (after dinner) the annual trade sales
of the principal London publishers take place," revivifying
the olden printing and book glories of Aldersgate and Little
Britain.
The cuisine of the Albion has long been celebrated for its
rechercM character. Among the traditions of the tavern it is
told that a dinner was once given here under the auspices
of the gourmand Alderman Sir William Curtis, which cost
the party between thirty and forty pounds apiece. It might
well have cost twice as much, for amongst other acts of
extravagance, they dispatched a special messenger to West-
phalia to choose a ham. There is likewise told a bet as to
the comparative merits of the Albion and York House
(Bath) dinners, which was to have been formally decided by
a dinner of unparalleled munificence, and nearly equal cost
at each ; but it became a drawn bet, the Albion beating in
the first course, and the York House in' the second. Still,
these are reminiscences on which, we frankly own, no great
reliance is to be. placed.
Lord Southampton once gave a dinner at the Albion, at
ten guineas a head; aiid the ordinary price for the best
dinner at this house (including wine) is three guineas.*
* "The Alt of Dining." Murray, 1852.
507
St. James's Hall.
This new building whicli is externally concealed by houses,
except the fronts in Piccadilly and Regent-street, consists of
a greater Hall and two minor Halls, which are let for
Concerts, Lectures, etc., and also form part of the Tavern
estabhshment, two of the Halls being used as public dining-
rooms. The principal Hall, larger than St. Martin's, but
smaller than Exeter Hall, is 140 feet long, 60 feet wide, and
60 feet high. At one end is a semicircular recess in which
stands the large organ. The noble room has been decorated
by Mr. Owen Jones with singularly light, rich, and festive
effect : the grand feature being the roof, which is blue and
white, red and gold, in Alhambresque patterns. The lighting
is quite novel, and consists of gas-stars, depending from the
roof, which thus appears spangled.
The superb decoration and effective lighting, render this
a truly festive Hall, with abundant space to set ofif the
banquet displays. The first PubUc Dinner was given here
on June 2, 1858, when Mr. Robert Stephenson, the eminent
engineer, presided, and a silver salver and claret-jug, with a
sum of money — altogether in value 2678/. — ^were presented
to Mr. F. Petit Smith, in recognition of his bringing into
general use the system of Screw Propulsion ; the testimonial
being purchased by 138 subscribers, chiefly eminent naval
officers, ship-builders, ship-owners, and men of science.
In the following month, (20th of July,) a banquet was
given here to Mr. Charles Kean, F.S.A., in testimony of his
having exalted the English theatre — of his public merits and
private virtues. The Duke of Newcastle presided : there
was a brilliant presence of guests, and nearly four hundred
ladies were in the galleries. Subsequently, in the Hall was
presented to Mr. Kean the magnificent service of plate,
purchased by public subscription.
So8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
The success of these intellectual banquets proved a most
auspicuous inauguration of St. James's Hall for —
The feast of reason and the flow of soul.
Theatrical Taverns.
Among these establishments, the Eagle, in the City-roadj
deserves mention. It occupies the site of the Shepherd and
Shepherdess, a tavern and tea-garden of some seventy-five
years sin